Komsomol, or Song of Heroes
Director Joris Ivens
Countries Russian Federation
Duration 50 min
Synopsis
This film was shot in the Urals on Magnitogorsk, where blast furnaces were being built next to what had recently been a small khirgiz village, in order to utlilise the iron ore from the magnetic mountain of Magitnaya. In Siberia the location was Kuznetz, and the focus was young workers building the blast furnaces- to be called Komsomolskaya, after the Young Communist League. The production was geared to coincide with the completion of the first five year plan, and the film was one of the ten shown to celebrate its completion. This is the first film in which Ivens uses the story of an individual as a narrative device, and also the much debated technique of re-enactment, that is, re-staging of events.
This film was shot in the Urals on Magnitogorsk, where blast furnaces were being built next to what had recently been a small khirgiz village, in order to utlilise the iron ore from the magnetic mountain of Magitnaya. In Siberia the location was Kuznetz, and the focus was young workers building the blast furnaces- to be called Komsomolskaya, after the Young Communist League. The production was geared to coincide with the completion of the first five year plan, and the film was one of the ten shown to celebrate its completion. This is the first film in which Ivens uses the story of an individual as a narrative device, and also the much debated technique of re-enactment, that is, re-staging of events.