Torn Boots
1933 · 85 min
Drama
★ 5.5Working with children led Barskaya to create superb direct sound and an inspired style of shooting. Don’t look for conventional cinematic syntax here. The film is chaotic in the way that Soviet films still knew how to be, and Langlois couldn’t help but be seduced by its rebellious spirit, its anarchy and love of children, comparable to Vigo’s Zero de conduite. As well as being a film made with and for children, it offers a complex take on Western society. Pre-Nazi Germany is not named as such but is carefully reconstructed, possibly under advice from Karl Radek, and children offer a playful reflection of class struggle – doubly excluded, as proletarians and as minors. “They play in the same way that they live”, one intertitle says. The interaction between their comical games and the yet more ludicrous ones played by adults is developed on several levels.
Crew
- Director Margarita Barskaya
- Writer Margarita Barskaya
- Director of Photography Georgi Bobrov
- Director of Photography Sarkis Gevorkyan
Cast
Mikhail Klimov
Pastor
Ivan Novoseltsev
Valter's father
- V
Varvara Alyokhina
School teacher
Klavdiya Polovikova
Blind woman
Vladimir Uralskiy
Police agent
- L
Lev Losev
- N
Nikolay Losev
- A
Anna Chekulaeva
Valter's mother
Natalia Sadovskaya
- O
Olga Bazanova
(uncredited)
Georgi Millyar
Passerby (uncredited)
Vladimir Mikhaylov
Passerby (uncredited)
Crew
- Director — Margarita Barskaya
- Writer — Margarita Barskaya
- Director of Photography — Georgi Bobrov
- Director of Photography — Sarkis Gevorkyan
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warming up the wall…
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