Proryw!

Down with the idling and failure to meet the plan! Down with cheating – the backlogs must be cleared! Long live the Stakhanovites! In addition to major feature films and innovative documentaries, Kuleshov also received commissions for short agitprop films of this nature as supporting pictures. The subject matter was derived from the latest party slogans. This time, “the backlog” has to be “liquidated”. Hence, Lev Kuleshov, one of the Soviet Union’s leading directors, completed the order within 48 hours – a record time, as the film proudly announces. Drunks, flighty characters, swindlers and right-wing opportunists are pilloried. A finger exercise, simplistic at times, executed with a wink in his eye at others, plus some astonishing metaphors.

Print courtesy of The Russian State Documentary Film & Photo Archive, Krasnogorsk