Ivan (1932) review: A loud, sweaty, and beautiful mess of a movie

Look, if you want a cozy movie night with popcorn, stay far away from Ivan. But if you have a soft spot for weird, loud history lessons that feel like a fever dream, this 1932 Soviet relic is actually worth your time. 🚧

It is definately not for everyone. Anyone who needs a clear, easy plot will probably turn it off after ten minutes.

The whole thing is about building this massive dam called the Dniprohes. We follow this young peasant named Ivan who has big muscles but not much else going on in his head. His dad is also there, mostly just being lazy and complaining about work. 😴

Concrete, Mud, and Loud Noises

First off, the sound in this movie is wild. It was Dovzhenko's first talkie, and you can tell he just discovered how loud machinery could be.

The clanging and hissing of the steam shovels is almost deafening. It is not like the polished, quiet dramas of the era, or even the wild jungle sounds of West of Zanzibar which came out a few years earlier. This is just raw industrial noise blasted right into your ears.

There is this one shot where the camera just stares at water rushing through the dam. It goes on for so long. You almost feel like you are getting wet just watching it.

And the editing is so choppy! Sometimes a guy is talking, and then suddenly we cut to a giant crane lifting dirt, and then we are back to the guy but he is in a different spot.

It is slightly confusing but it gives the movie this frantic, sweaty energy that I kind of loved.

The Lazy Dad is the Best Part

Honestly, the main character Ivan is kind of boring. He is just a big, handsome block of wood who wants to do a good job. He eventually joins the Party because, well, it is a Soviet film from 1932, so of course he does.

But his dad? The dad is hilarious.

He represents the "old way" of doing things, which means he mostly wants to take naps in the dirt and fish instead of pouring concrete. There is a great moment where he just sits there looking at a modern machine like it insulted his ancestors.

"Why work hard when the river is right there?" - basically his whole vibe.

There is also this strange bureaucrat character who keeps popping up to complain about stuff. Nobody seems to like him, and the movie does not really explain who he is. He just exists to get yelled at by the real workers. 🤷‍♂️

The faces in this movie are incredible though. Dovzhenko clearly just went around finding the most rugged, wrinkled peasant faces he could.

You can see the dirt under their fingernails. It makes the shiny Communist future they keep talking about look very distant and strange.

A Sudden Shift

Then, the movie gets surprisingly dark. A young worker dies in an accident, and his mother runs across the massive construction site screaming.

It is a incredibly heavy scene. The camera tracks her running through the mud, and it feels so real and painful that it ruins the happy "building the future" mood entirely. It lingers on her face for way too long.

After that, the movie tries to get back to its political message, but it feels a bit forced. Ivan gets educated, he wears a nice suit, and everyone smiles. But you cannot really forget the mud and the noise from earlier.

I am glad I watched it, even if my ears are still ringing a bit. It is a messy, beautiful, and sometimes boring piece of propaganda that feels incredibly human because of how imperfect it is.