Electrifying propaganda or just old wires?

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for archival Soviet footage or you’re a history nerd who really loves the aesthetic of early power grids. If you go in looking for a narrative or anything resembling a modern documentary, you're going to be bored to tears. It’s a total time capsule. People who hate dry, rhythmic montage work should stay far, far away.

There’s this one sequence where the camera just sits on a group of young workers. You can tell they aren't quite sure what to do with their hands. It feels so much more real than the staged, patriotic stuff that follows right after. It’s that awkwardness that caught me off guard.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification (1932) through its definitive frames.

The rhythm of the machine

Shub clearly knew how to cut film, but man, the propaganda is laid on so thick you could carve it with a knife. The pacing changes the second the music kicks in. Everything feels like it's trying to keep up with a ticking clock that doesn't actually exist. It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in Potseluy Meri Pikford, though this is obviously a much different beast.

The shots of the electrification lines stretching across the horizon look almost like a spiderweb. It’s haunting in a weird way. You realize that for the people on screen, this was the future. For us, it’s just ghosts in black and white. Sometimes the movie lingers on a single switch or a pulley for way too long. I started counting the seconds. It got to five. Then ten. Why?

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Komsomol - Sponsor of Electrification (1932) through its definitive frames.

I caught myself looking at the faces in the background more than the actual machinery. There’s a girl in the third row of the workers' parade who looks like she just wants to go home and have a nap. She’s the most human thing in the whole film. Nobody else seems to notice her, but she’s there. That’s the stuff that makes these old reels worth watching.

• The editing feels like a heartbeat, then it just stops.
• The power lines are actually kind of beautiful.
• I still don't know who half these guys are, but they look determined.

It’s not perfect. It’s barely even a 'movie' in the way we talk about things like The Cheat, but it works as a weird, rhythmic document. Don't expect to be moved. Expect to be curious. ⚡