Revue (Predstavleniye)

Director: Sergei Loznitsa

Distributor: Icarus Films

Country: Russia

Theatrical Release Date: May 13, 2009

Synopsis: As he did with his critically-acclaimed "Blockade," a documentary re-creation of the WWII siege of Leningrad, which received its NY theatrical premiere in March 2007, filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa has once again scoured the Russian film archives for "Revue," selecting excerpts from newsreels, propaganda films, TV shows and feature films that present an evocative portrait of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s. With scenes taken from the length and breadth of the “Soviet Motherland,” "Revue" illustrates industry and agriculture, political life, popular culture, and technology. The film’s fascinating flow of disparate scenes representing typical Soviet life of the period is, seen from today’s perspective, alternately poignant, funny, and tragic. The archival excerpts reveal a life of hardship, deprivation and seemingly absurd social rituals, but one always inspired by the vision, or illusion, of a communist future. Seen from these dual historical and contemporary perspectives, "Revue" is both a nostalgic and instructive look back at a communist past that represents social engineering on a grand, and frightening, scale.