Aerograd
Science fiction pushes the boundaries, explores the improbable, and envisions the future of humanity. It also exposes us to extravagant visual effects and the inventive power of cinema, reflecting our deepest fantasies. In cinema, science fiction is immersive, creating worlds suddenly within our reach. This summer, over one hundred films from the history of cinema will allow us to witness this!
The greatest of Soviet films? Perhaps, yes. A strange and glorious vision of nature (the tundra) and the utopia of a technological revolution. A film full of contradictions: an official version – in line with what we've come to expect from a film of these years – and at the same time an anarchic, dreamlike anticipation of wider perspectives.
Oleksandr Dovzhenko
Oleksandr Dovzhenko was a Soviet Ukrainian filmmaker. His best-known films are Arsenal (1939) and Earth (1930), which, along with Zvenigora (1928), form his "Ukraine Trilogy." For this reason, some historians consider him one of the founders of Ukrainian cinema. Ukraine inspired many of his films. He began working in the film industry as a screenwriter in 1925 and as a director at the age of 32. In 1935, after completing Aerograd, Joseph Stalin suggested he create a film featuring Nikolai Shchors, a nearly forgotten military figure of the Russian Civil War. After submitting several script versions to the General Directorate of Cinema and the Politburo and receiving additional advice from Stalin, he made the film which became a great success. In 1941, he became a war correspondent and prepared Ukraine in Flames, a documentary he filmed two years later. This time, the film displeased Stalin. Dovjenko was then summoned to a Politburo meeting, where he was severely criticized for the revisionist content of his work. From that point on, he worked partly in disgrace. Dovjenko was a mentor to the young Ukrainian filmmakers Larisa Shepitko and Sergei Parajanov. In 1994, the Dovzhenko Centre - the Ukrainian film center - was founded in his honor.
