Note on transliteration
Acknowledgements
KinoSputniks general editors’ preface
List of illustrations
Production credits
Plot summary
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Historical context and production history
Chapter 3: Film analysis
Chapter 4: Reception
Chapter 5: Conclusion: Fifty years later
Joshua First is the Croft Associate Professor of History and International Studies at the Croft Institute for International Studies at the University of Mississippi.
'These and future KinoSputniks will be cherished by Russian-film
fans and used in courses on Russian cinema and culture. All three
contribute not only to the project of writing Russian film history,
but also to explorations of Russian/Soviet culture and history. In
fact, whether this was intended or not, all three ultimately
address the question of nationality and nation in Russian and
Soviet culture: the controversial treatment of the Jews in The
Commissar, the celebration of the Ukrainians in Shadows, and the
place of Russia vis-à-vis the west in Russian Ark.'
*Maria Belodubrovskaya, Slavic Review*
'Disputes about the existential meaning of Shadows of Forgotten
Ancestors were conducted within the framework of hermetic 1960s
debates about how to define ‘poetic cinema’ and ‘national cinema’.
As First argues, these discussions were ‘filled with allusions to
the great conflict between formalism and socialist realism during
the early 1930s’ (p. 45). Although these debates now have a
decidedly musty aura, the film remains. First concludes his work by
pointing, tantalizingly, to the films continuing influence over
present day, and presumably future, filmmakers (p. 58). We shall
see.'
*Steven A. Usitalo, Slavonic & East European Review*
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