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1930. Goskinprom.
Salt for Svenetia Based on an article by S. Trelakov. Director and Chief Cameraman Mihkail Kalatozov. Co-Cinematographer Sh. Geglashvili. Opening title: "The Soviet Union is a country so big and diverse that every kind of social and economic way of life is to be found within it." Lenin Even now there are far reaches of the Soviet Union
where the patriarchal way of life persists along with remnants of the clan
system.
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Three decades before his acclaimed
The Cranes Are Flying (1957) and I Am Cuba! (1963), director
Mihkail Kalatozov created a remarkable account of the life of a primitive
people living in the upper Caucasian region. Salt for Svenetia is
a staged documentary, along the lines of Flaherty's Nanook of the North
or the Cooper-Schoedsack Chang, but it is no less effective
for the fact that it is carefully staged, photographed and edited. Salt
for Svenetia is a film you will remember for a long time, part visual
story-telling, part pure beauty.
The film begins with near-abstract images of daily life. Mountains and rooftops in the opening shots could be from Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Then through terse titles and beautiful images the film explores aspects of the daily life of the Sventians. Edited to a pulsing rhythm, the striking compositions feature stunning landscapes and point-of-view camera shots. Kalatozov presents his story like a picture book. One sequence follows the sheep raised in the area from wool to yarn to cloth. The use of yarn for bridges brings us to a stunning shot of a suspension bridge over a raging river, with a man pulling across two. Later, the inhabitants bring in the barley harvest in an early snowstorm providing remarkable images of faces, landscapes and weather. One title says 'nature is harsh- the work is exhausting' but for an outsider, it is beautiful and life affirming. Politics enters only at the end, with a title: "Religion is feeding off of Svanetia and all because there are no roads." Thanks to the Soviets, a road is finally constructed. 'Our economic plan is stronger than religion and a handful of old customs,' a title announces at the conclusion- an odd postscript to a film that finds beauty in nature and hardship. Salt for Svenetia is available on VHS from Kino on Video, and from Image Entertainment as part of the Classics of Early Soviet Cinema II box set. The original print shows some wear, but is overall in excellent condition. The terrific score is by Zoran Borisavljevic. (Review © 1998 David Pierce) |
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Send additions, suggestions, comments or questions to David Pierce, prizma@onetel.com
© 1998 David Pierce