Communist utopia meets Bauhaus brain drain — what could possibly go wrong in Siberia?
A 1996 Dutch documentary film about the Western European architects who were invited by the Soviet Union to construct “Socialist cities” in Siberia during the late 1920s and early 30s. The film draws on interviews of some of the last survivors of this time, including Jan Rutgers (of the Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony), Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (of the Ernst May group), and Philipp Tolziner (of the “Bauhaus Brigade”), and on letters, articles, and lectures written by those who have already died, including Hans Schmidt, Mart Stam, Johannes van Loghem, and Ernst May. It also follows the daily lives of contemporary residents of Magnitogorsk, Orsk, Novokuznetsk, and Kemerovo.
Production
Rare interviews with last surviving architects — irreplaceable oral history
Director
Anna Abrahams
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, interviewed here at 90, had designed the famous Frankfurt Kitchen in 1926 before exporting her expertise to the USSR.
The 'Bauhaus Brigade' architects were essentially star-chasing Soviet promises of creative freedom — most were purged, imprisoned, or escaped just in time.
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