Turksib

1929 [RUSSIAN]

Action / Documentary

7
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 60% · 6 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 60% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.2/10 10 491 491

railroad

Plot summary

Bold and exhilarating documentary account of the building of the Turkestan-Siberian railway, presented as a heroic triumph of Soviet progress over natural adversity.

Director

Victor A. Turin Photo
Victor A. Turin

Top cast

720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
660.76 MB
968*720
Russian 2.0
NR
Subtitles ru  
18 fps
12 hr 57 min
Seeds 1
1.24 GB
1440*1072
Russian 2.0
NR
Subtitles ru  
18 fps
12 hr 57 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by garcianyssa 6 / 10

Dry, but Good

Turin's Turksib is the telling of the Turkestan-Siberian Railway and seems to be a positive commentary on the construction of this railroad. First Turin establishes the struggles facing the native population by showing images of their daily lives and the obstacles they face. Turin first sets up the importance of cotton and the maintaining of their land by showing many close-ups of cotton and the products made from it before moving onto other establishing shots of the land and the workers, which help to provide a sense of humanity and connection with the viewer. The introduction of the railroad and the positive impact its construction will have on the people of Turkestan is only further cemented by previous scenes like the one showing the people waiting for water. Turin's use of repetitive title-cards in scenes like these help to convey the urgency experienced by the people and further connects the audience with their struggle. The continued romanticizing of the railroad and the focus on all the positives that this railroad will have clearly suggests that this film is one of propaganda. Turin's film has many good elements of filmmaking and is overall successful in conveying the positive message of continued improvement through industrialization.
Reviewed by boblipton 9 / 10

A Lesson Learned Is Not Forgotten

The opening sequences of this late silent documentary about the building of the railroad connecting Turkestan and Siberia was a bit off-putting. Was it going to replicate the hysteria of the titles of SALT FOR SVANETIA, with its setting of a problem -- for Svanetia, not enough salt; for Turkestan, not enough water, and access to outside markets and supplies? But no. It shows its problems, and their solutions in images, as a movie should.And at an increasing editing pace. I don't believe that Russian Academician film making was a marvelous advance; it codified what Western film makers had been doing for twenty years, and offered them in university language that gave the skills of the craftsmen an intellectual patina of respectability. Its major innovation was to quicken the pace of editing, a process that had been going on since George Smith and Williamson in Britain had realized that you could stick two shots together to offer a story. If it seems the message was lost for half a decade with the coming of sound, it was because recording techniques had to catch up before editing could be integrated as fully, and it wasn't until the 1960s that editing paces equaled those seen here. The techniques weren't lost, they were set aside for a few years, and then reintegrated into film making. Looking at 1930s B movies, you see long, dreary takes through 1937 from Poverty Row producers. After that, the techniques were settled, and gradually picked up pace. In Japan and China, where silent movies continued through the middle of the 1930s, there was no barrier, no need to recover and re-establish fast cutting. But Hollywood set the pace, and it would be a third of a century before the cutting speed of this movie would become the gold standard once again.
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