Arsenal (1928)

Recommended

Soviet Union
Feature Film
Original Title: Арсенал
Writer/Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Cinematographer: Daniil Demutsky
Composers: The Alloy Orchestra
Cast: Semyon Svashenko, Amvrosi Buchma, Georgi Khorkov, Dmitri Erdman, Sergei Petrov, M. Mikhajlovsky, A. Yevdakov, Nikolai Kuchinsky, O. Merlatti, Nikolai Nademsky

Despite the Ukrainian ruling class being depicted as sub-human imbeciles, and the film’s promotion of the idea that glory is synonymous with the ability to kill or be killed for “righteous” reasons, this account of the 1917 revolution from a Ukrainian perspective is, never the less, a wonderful piece of film-making, filled with strikingly memorable images, not the least of which being the symbolically rich final shot of an undefeatable Ukrainian worker. Iain.Stott