People arsenal
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | People arsenal |
| Original title | Priwidenije kotoroje ne vozvrashchayetsja Привидение, которое не возвращается |
| Country of production | Soviet Union |
| original language | Russian |
| Publishing year | 1929 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Abram Room |
| script | Valentin Turkin |
| production | Sowkino |
| music | Alexander Schenschin |
| camera | Dimitri Feldmann |
| cut | Anna Kulganek |
| occupation | |
| |
People's Arsenal (translated from the original: The Ghost That Will Not Return ) is a Soviet silent film from 1929 by Abram Room . The film was based on motifs from the novella “ And yet no homecoming ” by Henri Barbusse .
action
The story - conceived as a political, communist pamphlet for the rights of workers against capitalist, exploitative structures - takes place predominantly in a US penitentiary in San Pietro. In this notorious detention center, which is run like a high-security wing and which the inmates call the "human arsenal", there are several oil workers who started a strike in South America against the oil company, their US employer. Its charismatic leader José Rell, who is to be made an example, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Above all, the prison warden pursues Rell with ardent hatred, because he absolutely refuses to bow and submit and is not ready to betray his ideals.
For the first time in ten years, José receives the authorization he is entitled to for an exit, which Rell uses after initial hesitation, although he suspects that the henchmen of the petroleum company or the bailiffs of the prison director will try to murder him outside, in temporary freedom . He would not be the first prisoner to be “shot while trying to escape”. However, José manages to evade his captors and wants to visit his family at home and his work colleagues in the oil fields. The strike soon resumes and the local police want to intervene and arrest José again. But the workers' solidarity does not betray him, and Rell is able to escape during the clashes.
Production notes
People Arsenal celebrated its German premiere on November 4, 1929 in the Berlin Atrium cinema. In the Soviet Union, the film did not open until March 15, 1930.
Reviews
“The atrocities of the capitalist penitentiary, the brutal machinery of class justice, have never been presented so vividly, so realistically and clearly. One penitentiary embodies all capitalist penitentiaries in the world ... "
“Room photographed this film in an almost Expressionist manner and also tried to use montages; But the most convincing are the satirically pointed character drawings of some figures, for example the bacon-clad agent who prefers to pick flowers (Maxim Strauch) and the long dream sequences in which the prisoner encounters his joys and his wife. "
Web links
- People arsenal in the Internet Movie Database (English)