Zvenigora (DVD)

Regarded as a silent revolutionary epic, Dovzhenko's initial film in his "Ukraine Trilogy" (along with Arsenal and Earth) is almost religious in its tone and is one of the most remarkable avant-garde films of an exuberantly experimental period. The film wonderfully blends both lyricism and politics and uses its central construct to build a montage praising Ukrainian industrialisation, attacking the European bourgeoisie, celebrating the beauty of the Ukrainian steppe and re-telling ancient folklore. A grandfather fills the head of his grandson with stories of a legendary Scythian treasure and the boy spends the rest of his life trying to find it. The unique style is modernist in its approach and disregards the more traditional storytelling devices. The captivating dreamlike cinematography is reminiscent of Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Protazanov and Kuleshov, yet Zvenigora is wholley unique to Dovzhenko.