Solovky Power
(VLAST SOLOVETSKAYA)
This first Soviet film about the "gulags" was a ground braking event in the political and cultural life of Russia. Based on painstakingly gathered archival documents, on the1929s-era propaganda reel "Solovky," and on personal experience narratives of interviewed survivors of the camp, the film recreates the history of the Solovky labor camp from the moment of its inception in 1923, to the day it finally closed in 1939. The interviewed survivors include the academician Lihachev, the simple peasant Efim Lagutin, the writer Oleg Volkov, and the former camp security guard Andrei Roschin, as well as those who brought the first shipload of inmates to the island. Their powerful testimony paint a panoramic vision of the crumbling of the Bolshevist utopia which was founded on the fallacies of communal happiness and which in reality was achieved by crushing those who dared face the hard truth. Russian with English subtitles. 93 minutes, 1987
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- Mosfilm Studios, Russia
- Director and Cinematographer; MARINA GOLDOVSKAYA
- Script; VIKTOR LISTOV, DMITRY CHUCKOVSKY
- Music; NICKOLAJ KARETNIKOV, MARINA KRUTOJARSKAYA
- Sound; ALEXANDER KHASSIN
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- Best Picture National State Film Festival; Moscow, Russia
- Joris Ivens Jury Prize; International Documentary Film Festival: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Special Human Rights Prize of "Memorial"; Russia
- Special Mention, International Film Festival; Berlin, Germany
- Special Jury Prize; Bombay, India
- San Francisco International Film Festival; San Francisco, California
- Telluride International Film Festival; Telluride, Colorado
- Sidney International Film Festival; Sidney, Australia
- Jerusalem International Film Festival; Jerusalem, Israel
- Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival; Yamagata, Japan
- Sundance Film Festival; Sundance, Utah
- Vincent Canby, New York Times: "Firstrate film journalism of historical importance.... Solovky Power is so good that it leaves the audience wanting to know more.
- San Francisco Chronicle: "An astonishing documentary... chilling."
- Hollywood Reporter: "Haunting....Goldovskaya brings to life what it must have been like to be a prisoner in Solovky."
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