A Russian outpost in Eastern Siberia comes under threat of attack by the Japanese. Aerograd is a new town with a strategically located airfield of vital interest to the government. Work on the new outpost is complicated when tensions develop between workers and a religious sect. Relations between the two countries are further strained in the days before World War II, dating back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
Cinematography
Stunning Soviet montage that'll make your eyeballs weep.
Direction
Dovzhenko's poetic nationalism hits different post-Cold War.
Production
Massive scale on 1935 resources — Stalin's rubles well spent.
Director
Oleksandr Dovzhenko
Stepan Shahaida
Stepan Glushchak, old partisan
Sergey Stolyarov
Volodymyr Glushchak, pilot
Stepan Shkurat
Vasyl Khudiakov
Boris Dobronravov
Anikii Shavanov, old Believer
Yuliia Tsai
Volodymyr's wife
Elena Maksimova
Mariia Kudina
Vasiliy Novikov
Scherban, partisan
Vladimir Uralskiy
Yefym Kosa
Maria Klyuchareva
Anisya Sharapova, old believer's widow
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dovzhenko made this while Ukrainian cinema was being absorbed into Moscow's empire — Aerograd's celebration of Soviet expansion carries bitter irony for his homeland.
The 'science fiction' label barely applies; it's speculative border drama with maybe one futuristic plane. Marketing departments were lying in 1935 too.
SU
