Arsenal

Dovzhenko, the director of Arsenal (1928), is regarded as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Eisenstein and Pudovkin, and a pioneer of Soviet montage theory. In Arsenal Dovzhenko not only focuses on the start of the Soviet revolution in Ukraine, but also addresses the absurdity of war. Dovzhenko overwhelms the viewer with expressive images, sometimes shocking, at other times poetic.
Eric Sleichim created a new score for this expressive movie, consisting of quotes and citations from 20th century music for strings and live-electronics. BL!NDMAN [strings] play the music live with the film.

PLOT: The Great War (World War I) has brought devastation, heartache, and hardship to the Ukrainian people. Their soldiers, likewise, have faced horrors from the enemy and threats from their own officers. One recently demobilized Ukrainian soldier, Timosh, returns home after surviving a train wreck, and arrives during a celebration of Ukrainian freedom. But Timosh begins to challenge the local authorities, and then, at the All-Ukrainian Congress, he calls for the soviet system to be adopted. In Kiev’s Arsenal munitions plant, where Timosh has worked, feelings are running especially high.