Russia is big country with most of its territory being made of vast, wild, sparsely populated areas, often with great natural beauty and, as such, very suitable setting for adventure films very much like American Westerns. That was recognised by Soviet film makers very early and Western-like films were made even in the darkest day of Stalinist repression and suffocating Socialist Realist dogma. One of the earliest examples can be found in Aerograd, 1935 film directed by Oleksandr (Alexander) Dovzhenko, sometimes known under US title Frontier and often considered to be one of the more unusual works of 1930s Soviet cinema.
The plot is set in Russian Far East, sparsely populated area covered with endless taiga, but rich with resources and which Soviet government wants to develop by building Aerograd, new big shining city on the coast of Pacific Ocean. Not everyone is happy about it, most notably Japanese, who have sent team of saboteurs and anti-Soviet agitators from occupied Manchuria. Most of their members are, however, easily taken out by protagonist Stepan Glushak (played by Stepan Shagaida), Soviet border guard/forest ranger, experienced hunter and former Red Partisan during Civil War. The only survivor finds shelter in religious community of Old Believers whom their leader Ankiy Shabanov (played by Boris Dobronravov), avowed anti-Communist, wants to lead in uprising with Japanese help. In the meantime, Stepan tends to family matters, since his son, pilot Vladimir (played by Sergey Stolyarov), has flown with his plane to attend birth of his son. After learning that one of Japanese agents is stirring trouble, Stepan gathers small band of his friends and Civil War veterans to nip the rebellion in the bud and he won’t be deterred from doing so even after he finds that his lifelong friend Vasily Khudyakov (played by Stepan Shkurat) has joined the enemy.
If Aerograd is to be viewed as Western, it shouldn’t be viewed as Classic Hollywood western but, instead, as “acid Western” characteristic for late 1960s and early 1970s. It is even more unusual if we consider that the film was originally commissioned by Stalin himself as typical Soviet propaganda piece. The motive was boiling border conflict between Soviet Union and Japanese Empire that dated from Civil War and Japanese intervention on the side of anti-Bolshevik Whites and that would actually escalate in two short full-blown military conflicts at the end of the decade. Stalin wanted the film that would promote Soviet regime in those areas and use its virgin lands as perfect site for building new socialist utopia. He hired Dovzhenko, Ukrainian film maker who is, together with Eisenstein and Pudovkin, considered one of the great pioneers of Soviet cinema and made “friendly suggestion” that the film gets shot on authentic locations of Eastern Siberia. Dovzhenko dutifully travelled eastwards, but the result was strange combination of two very different films that don’t actually mix well.
One of those two films is typical Soviet propaganda piece in which protagonists use any opportunity to praise the regime as something noble, modern, progressive and whose advantages over pre-revolutionary past or foreign capitalist countries are all but self-evident. It is embodied in character of young Glushak with his modern plane that symbolises triumph of Soviet technology and roams the skies over Far East helping stranded American pilots or ultimately deciding final conflict with rebels near the end. Vladimir’s wife is Chukchi native, which clearly shows that the new Soviet state has transcended ethnic and racial differences and there is even character of young Chukchi (played by Nikon Tabunasov), who, after learning that Aerograd is going to be built, enthusiastically travels many days in order to “study there”. Japanese are shown as pathetic, while Old Believers are portrayed as hysterical fanatics who reject Soviet modernity.
But, at the same time, Dovzhenko tries to make this film a little bit more personal. Character of Stepan as large-than-life Big Hunter looks more like rugged individual that would be played by John Wayne in American films than embodiment of Soviet collectivism. He loves being in taiga, unburdened with rules of civilisation and, furthermore, expresses real sorrow when it turns that it has to fight his old friend who, despite ideological differences, is in many ways his mirror image. This content, which were almost heretical for Soviet dogmas of the period, was slipped in the film through rapid editing and series of unusual narrative techniques that include sometimes bizarre intertitles followed by Stepan’s calm and detached treatment of his enemies followed by strange dialogue that wouldn’t be out of place in Tarantinoesque black comedy. But the strangest thing appear in the end, in the grand finale that features hundred of Soviet panes arriving over Aerograd and delivering spectacular mass parachute landing; yet all those parachutists in the end land on the meadows that, apart from protagonist and few officers and servicemen of Soviet Navy, are empty. Aerograd, over which people fought over, yet has to be built. As propaganda piece, Aerograd fails and sometimes unfortunate editing and technical limitations don’t help either. Whether Stalin was happy with the film or not isn’t known. Dovzhenko survived and continued to make films. Some of his associates weren’t so lucky, including main star Shagaida, who would only few years later be executed as part of the Great Purge. Dovzhenko’s film is interesting but flawed film that could be recommended only to the more curious among cinephiles.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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