Transport of Fire is a sweaty, stressful train ride from 1930

You should watch this if you like movies where people look incredibly stressed about pieces of paper. It’s perfect for a rainy Tuesday when you want to feel a bit of that old-school tension.

If you can't stand silent films or black-and-white grain, you’ll probably hate it within five minutes. It’s not exactly a blockbuster.

The whole thing is about smuggling the Iskra newspaper. It’s funny how much danger they go through just to deliver some printed words.

There is this one guy, Aleksei Goryushin plays him, and he has these eyes that look like they haven’t seen sleep in three years. He spends a lot of the movie just staring at suitcases.

The trains are the real stars though. They look like giant, breathing monsters made of iron and soot.

I noticed at one point there’s a shot of a wheel spinning that goes on way too long. It’s like the director just really loved that specific piece of machinery. 🚂

The Stress of a Suitcase

There is a scene at the border that actually made me hold my breath. The way the guards handle the luggage is so slow it feels mean.

You can see the sweat on the characters' faces, and it doesn't look like movie makeup. It looks like they were actually stuck in a hot, cramped train car for ten hours.

The pacing is a bit weird. It starts fast, then it just sort of lingers on people walking through the woods for a while.

I kept thinking about The Silent Battle while watching this. Both have that vibe of "we are doing something important but we have to be quiet about it."

One of the actors, I think it was Lev Butarinsky, has a mustache that deserves its own credit. It’s huge and very distracting during the emotional close-ups.

Small Details

• The way the light hits the steam coming off the engine is actually beautiful.
• There is a dog in one scene that looks very confused to be there.
• The titles cards are sometimes a bit too loud, if that makes sense.

I forgot for a second that this was a propaganda piece because the suspense was actually working on me. It’s way better than some of the other stuff from that era like The Yellow Dog which felt a bit more stiff.

The ending comes up pretty fast. It doesn't really wrap things up in a neat bow, it just sort of... stops.

I liked it, though. It felt real in a way that modern movies with their clean CGI just can't match.

It’s dirty and loud and everyone looks like they need a good nap. Highly recommended if you want to see how they did thrillers before everyone had a cellphone.

One more thing—the music in the version I saw was really clunky. It didn't always match what was happening on screen, which made some of the serious parts feel a little bit like a circus. 🤡

But the visuals carry it. You don't need the sound to tell you that these guys are in deep trouble.

It reminds me a bit of the mood in Morphium, just with more politics and less, well, morphium. It has that same heavy, dark atmosphere that sticks to you.

Anyway, give it a shot. It's short enough that even if you don't love it, you haven't lost your whole afternoon.