Frontier (1935)

A Russian outpost in Eastern Siberia comes under threat of attack by the Japanese. Aerograd is a new town with a strategically located airfield of vital interest to the government.

Director:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writers:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko, N. Simonov

Stars:

Stepan Shagaida, Sergey Stolyarov, Stepan Shkurat

Cast

Credited cast:
Stepan Shagaida	...	Stepan Glushak - 'Tiger Death' (as Semyon Shagaida)
Sergey Stolyarov	...	Vladimir Slushak - pilot
Stepan Shkurat	...	Vasili Khudiakov
G. Tsoi	...	Van-Lin
Ekaterina Melnikova	...	Stepan's wife
N. Tabunasov	...	Young Chukcha
L. Kan	...	Samurai
I. Kim	...	Samurai
Boris Dobronravov	...	Aniky Shavanov
Yelena Maksimova	...	Maria Kudina
Vladimir Uralskiy	...	Yefim Kosa
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vadim Gusev	...	Old Believer's son
Maria Klyuchareva	...	Anisya Sharapova (as M. Klyucharyova)
Yekaterina Korchagina-Aleksandrovskaya	...	Old Believer
Vasili Novikov	...	Partisan Shcherban

Storyline

A Russian outpost in Eastern Siberia comes under threat of attack by the Japanese. Aerograd is a new town with a strategically located airfield of vital interest to the government.

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Plot Keywords:

threat | 

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Taglines:

A Thunderbolt From the Far East!

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Genres:

Drama

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User Reviews

Hot Air in Aerograd

For those who fondly remember the terrific visuals of Dovzhenko's "Earth", this is a very, very long way off. As some have mentioned this IS propaganda but the sort that shoots itself in the foot rather than pointing fingers. In the first thirty minutes alone there were three monumental speeches, all over-stressed and so painfully long they made me actually home-sick for the Academy Award-winning overacting we know so well. There's not really much of a plot here - the screaming propaganda would have buried it anyway - and the characters themselves go no deeper than comic-book roles. In fact, the characters don't develop either, so the film is quite static in just about every way. All the foreigners here are despicable as well as people making the signs of the cross. This is a textbook example of Stalinist film, with exclamation points at the end of every sentence. And as we remember from grade school, too many exclamation points weaken the ideas. Perhaps that was why the film is so tiring.

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

27 December 1935 (USA)

Also Known As:

Frontier

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gosudarstvennoe Upravlenie Kinematografii i fotografii (GUKF), Mosfilm, Ukrainfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1