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The Soviet Influence from Turksib to Night Mail
Viktor Turin et al; USSR/UK 1929-36; BFI/Region 2 DVD/Region B Blu-ray Dual Format; Certificate U; 163 minutes; Aspect Ratio 1.33:1; Features: booklet
Films: Viktor Turin has become one of those directors remembered for a single movie: the 1 9 2 9 Soviet documentary Turksib. Prior to that, according to fay Leyda, he made "good-looking studio films" for the Ukrainian studio VUFKU; subsequently he directed one more work, Men of Baku (1938), described by Leyda as "a well-made imitation of Grigori Kozintsev's] Maxim films". But just once he attained genius: dynamic, exhilarating and visually stunning, Turksibis one of the glories of the shortlived golden age of Soviet cinema.
The film recounts the construction, across desert and mountain, of the Turkestan-Siberian railway, designed to bring grain to Turkestan in return for...