The Cinematheque

“[Enthusiasm] became the first motion-picture in which real industrial and routine sounds not only illustrated the visual range, but also served to create an independent musical image.”

Dovzhenko Centre

Widely renowned for his film Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Dziga Vertov here captures aspects of life in the Donbas region, located in the eastern part of Ukraine. Not long after the film was released, this region suffered intensely from the man-made Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1931 and 1932, a horror that killed millions. In 2014 the region was occupied by armed separatists supported by Russia, initiating a war that is ongoing today. Although Enthusiasm was intended as propaganda in support of forced agricultural collectivization and industrialization, Vertov, whether consciously or unconsciously, incorporated many images that subtly challenged the authority of the regime. Through an amazing montage of industrial sounds and imagery, Vertov mounts a ​“symphony” of Ukrainian-Soviet coal, steel, and agriculture.

No dialogue

preceded by

Enter Through the Balcony
Вхід через балкон
Ukraine 2020
Roman Blazhan
26 min. DCP

Roman Blazhan’s documentary short explores the fascinating architectural phenomenon of Ukrainian balconies and the imaginative alterations made to them by residents of Soviet-era apartment blocks. Enter Through the Balcony documents something peculiarly alluring and unique to Ukrainian life.

In Ukrainian with English subtitles