Komsomol

Poster of Astra Film Festival - Sibiu'2004
(where Ivens' Komsomol was also presented)
(http://www.astrafilm.ro/view-from-holland.aspx?year=2004)
no copyright infringement intended

Komsomol (Песнь о героях) este dedicat tinerilor voluntari din Occident, care au participat la constructia marelui combinat de la Magnitogorsk in Muntii Urali, in timpul primului cincinal al lui Stalin. Filmul oferea occidentalilor din acea vreme o incursiune unica în realitatile sovietice. Imaginile puternice si forta montajului il transforma intr-o oda dedicata tinerilor voluntari.

(Astra Film Festival - Sibiu'2004)

[Komsomol (Песнь о героях) is dedicated to young volunteers from the West, who participated in the construction of the huge metallurgical work from Magnitogorsk in the Urals Mountains, during the first of Stalin's five-year plan. The film gave to the Westerners of that time a unique foray into realities. The strong images and the force of the editing turn the movie into an ode dedicated to young volunteers.]

Joris Ivens: Komsomol (1932)
(video by novacsergiu)

One could say that Komsomol is a propaganda film, only Ivens believed totally in that propaganda. It's better to say that Komsomol is totally committed politically. Artistically, it is perfectly made: it was not only the total belief of Ivens in the Communist ideology, it was also his total belief in the Productionist approach in making a work of art. And, speaking now exclusively about the artistic qualities of this movie,  Ivens again, like in all his other films, is a poet of the quotidian. Well here Ivens pulls out the heroic from the quotidian, it is true; but he remains a poet of the quotidian (maybe he was making poetry sans le savoir, what about that?)


(Joris Ivens)