DUSHANBE, June 17, 2017, Asia-Plus —
Battleship Potemkin
by Sergei Eisenstein will be demonstrated in Dushanbe’s Dom Kino (House of Cinema) tomorrow at 5:00 pm.
The demonstration of the movie is organized by the Satyajit Ray Film Club.
Battleship Potemkin
, sometimes rendered as
Battleship Potyomkin
, is a 1925 Soviet silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm. It presents a dramatized version of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship “Potemkin” rebelled against their officers.
Battleship Potemkin
was named the greatest film of all time at the Brussels World”s Fair in 1958.
The film is set in June 1905; the protagonists of the film are the members of the crew of “Potemkin,” a battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy”s Black Sea Fleet.
Eisenstein divided the plot into five acts, each with its own title: Act I: Men and Maggots; Act II: Drama on the Deck; Act III: A Dead Man Calls for Justice; Act IV: The Odessa Steps; and Act V: One against all.
The best known sequence of the film is set on the Odessa steps (Act IV), connecting the waterfront with the central city. A detachment of dismounted Cossacks forms a line at the top of the steps and march towards a crowd of unarmed civilians including women and children. The soldiers halt to fire a volley into the crowd and then continue their impersonal, machine-like advance. Brief sequences show individuals amongst the people fleeing or falling, a baby”s pram running down the steps, a woman shot in the face, broken spectacles and the high boots of the soldiers moving in unison.
In retaliation, the sailors of the Potemkin decide to fire on a military headquarters with the guns of the battleship. Meanwhile, there is news that a squadron of loyal warships is coming to quell the revolt of “Potemkin”.
The Satyajit Ray Film Club, which was founded in Dushanbe in the Eighteens at the initiative of known Tajik filmmaker Davlat Khudonazarov for the purpose of popularizing heritage of world’s cinematography, resumes its activities. The Club will serve as a regular platform for popularization of world and native auteur films in Dushanbe. The Club will also provide an opportunity for Tajik audience to get acquainted with new works of Tajik cinematographers.
