1929. Director: Dziga Vertov. Runtime: 68min.

A groundbreaking celebration of cinematic possibility, transforming images of everyday life into a dazzling city symphony.

Often ranked amongst the greatest films of all time, this fascinating portrait of a society in transition uses dynamic camera effects to explore a day in the life of a fictional Soviet city, carrying with it the ambition to create “a truly international absolute language of cinema”.

Produced by a Ukrainian film studio and filmed mostly in Kyiv, Odessa and Moscow, the film was made without sets, actors, intertitles or a script to place the emphasis firmly on the unique language of cinema. Director David Abelevich Kaufman (aka Dziga Vertov – a Ukrainian phrase roughly meaning ‘spinning top’), articulates his concept of “kino-eye” (camera-eye) throughout the film: the belief that the camera can reveal truths beyond the perception of the human eye.

Together with his brother, cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman, and wife, editor Elizaveta Svilova, Vertov experiments with techniques of perspective, editing, slow motion, split screens and superimposition in ways that attempt to revolutionise visual thinking. Part documentary part artistic manifesto, the film’s exhilarating invention remains as fresh and as stimulating as when it was first screened almost a century ago.

Dir. Dziga Vertov | Ukrainian SSR, USSR | 1929 | U | b&w | No intertitles | 1h 8m + intro (captioned)
Original title: Chelovek s kino-apparatom
Performing live: S!nk (Daniel Dumnov, Matt Wright, Tim Vincent-Smith)

CONTENT ADVISORY: funeral, childbirth images

Screening material courtesy: Flicker Alley and Film Preservation Associates

Shuttle bus available! Book a return ticket from Linlithgow Station to the Hippodrome.

Multi-screening deal: book any two films for £20! Discount applied at check out.