20:17

Arseny Zanin, Mikhail Arkhipov and Denis Shabaev visit both the archives of revolutionary film and the conflict zone in the Donbass: did the October Revolution represent the prelude to a large-scale social experiment or a historical tragedy? The enthusiasm triggered by the revolution inspired directors such as Sergei Eisenstein and Oleksandr Dovzhenko, as well as future generations of filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard.

Despite the subsequent appearance of totalitarian systems constructed in the name of the October Revolution its symbols have refused to go away, in turn assisting in the process of elevating the events of 1917 to the status of legend. The three constituent elements of this film take us on a journey from the fiery pathos of early Bolshevism's constructivist films to the rebirth of the cult of Lenin in modern day "Novorossiya". The masses' enthusiasm is sustained by the seizure and retention of power, or is this contention itself nothing but a propaganda fabrication? BB