Jim Shvante (marili svanets)
Juonikuvaukset(1)
This vivid ethnographic study about a forgotten corner of the Caucasus, cut off from the world by mountains, was made by Mikhail Kalatozov, inspired by the works of the playwright and essayist Sergey Tretyakov. Ancient ceremonies and rituals, a harsh environment, poverty, and a salt shortage were a part of the everyday life of the mountain dwellers, who often perished as they travelled to the lowlands in search of a better livelihood. (Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival)
(lisää)Arvostelut (1)
Another expressively non-documentary film capturing the modernization/sovietisation of underdeveloped areas of the USSR, which were numerous not only on the periphery of the country - a similar film is Turksib (1929) about the introduction of railways to Central Asia, but generally also the "invasion" of tractors into Russian and Ukrainian villages in Old and New and Earth. In this specifically Soviet construction genre, documentary (that is, an ethnographic excursion into the living conditions and traditions of the locals) mixes with fiction - specific stories of people, which, from the perspective of the authors, reveal the essence of their communities. For example, the fate of the woman abandoned by society is not so much a part of a narrated story, but rather a timeless metaphor, a contrast to the everyday life and traditions of a Georgian village (hopefully no viewer thinks that the contrast between a starving mother and child and wasteful religious festivities happens at the same time). It is therefore parallel montage, not cross-cutting, that we are watching! That is exactly and mainly true for the final construction shots - we can only be dismayed by the discrepancy between the film and reality if we do not understand the film and its message as parallel montage (a promise, possibility, future of Georgia contained in October and its builders), but as simple cross-cutting.
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