Aerograd (1935)

Director:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writers:

Aleksandr Dovzhenko (writer)
N. Simonov (writer)

Release Date:

27 December 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Cast

Stepan Shagaida	...	Stepan Glushak (as Semyon Shagaida)
Sergei Stolyarov	...	Vladimir Slushak
Yevgeniya Melnikova
Stepan Shkurat	...	Vasili Khudiakov
G. Tsoi	...	Van-Lin
N. Tabunasov	...	Young Chukcha
L. Kan	...	Samurai
I. Kim
Boris Dobronravov	...	Aniky Shavanov
Yelena Maksimova
Vladimir Uralsky

Also Known As:

Air City
Frontier (USA)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-12

Company:

Gosudarstvennoe Upravlenie Kinematografii i fotografii (GUKF)

Stalin's Propaganda

If propaganda is your thing you'll love this movie. Although I succumb to propaganda in really well done movies like I Am Cuba I wasn't sucked in much by Aerograd. Therefore, all I really liked about this pro "manifest destiny" piece for the Soviet Union were the beautiful landscape and airscape vignettes. Russia's Far East sure looks like a place worthy of conquest so I feel the movie is at least somewhat successful in that. If you're a historian you may also be interested to see how the interwar Soviet propaganda machine rails against Japan and other Asian countries in 1935.