Videocassette release of two silent documentary motion pictures produced in 1929 (Turksib) and 1930 (Dzhim shvantė).
Summary:
Two early Soviet documentary films which challenged the stolid, emotionally detached nature of the genre. Turksib depicts the herculean accomplishments of joining the arid plains of Turkestan to the icy Siberian mountains by rail. Salt for Svanetia is an ethnographic treasure that documents the harsh conditions of life in the isolated mountain village of Ushkul. As the focus of the film shifts to the Svan's barbaric religious customs the film is transformed into a work of Communist propaganda, holding up these grotesque, near-pagan ceremonies (which many Svanetians later denied as accurate) as an example of religion's corruptive influence.
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