Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Turksib (1929)

Directed by Viktor Turin, this propaganda documentary was charged with the task of convincing the Soviet people of the need for a railroad to connect Siberia and, what is today, Kazakhstan.

This DVD edition of Mikhail Kalatozov’s Turksib (1929) has been mastered from the 1997 analog video transfer of (what appears to be) a 16mm reduction print of an American release print with English intertitles by John Grierson, originally produced by David Shepard for release on VHS videotape. With its approximate 1.19:1 frame ratio, the source print appears to have had, at some point, a synchronized soundtrack. The print has the usual amount of dust and speckling, loose splices, and some moderate print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed on synthesizer by Zoran Borisavljevic.

Supplemental material includes a 28-page insert booklet with short essays and notes on the films by Maxim Pozdorovkin and Ana Olenina.

This is the only DVD home video edition of the film that we are aware of. Even though the boxset is now out-of-print, it is recommended.

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