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The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: Salt For Svanetia (1930) Run Time: 49M

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Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a Soviet film about a remote corner of Russia and the primitive ways of its inhabitants: Salt for Svanetia.

and next week’s film:

Solaris:

Reviews of Salt For Svanetia:

mlfilmstudy.com says:

In the work of the Georgian-Soviet film director, Mikhail Kalatozov, the image always reigns supreme. This film is what I would call a poetic ethnographic documentary. He depicts the life documents the life of the Svan people as they eke out a tough existence in a remote mountain village called Ushguli in Svanetia. At the time, this formed part of the Soviet Republic.

Originally conceived as a fictional feature film, it became more of a documentary and its genre probably lies somewhere in-between the two. It’s best seen as a poetic film, a drama told through images. Sometimes, the style is quite expressionistic.

letterboxd:

Hi everybody, here now our fourth review to Kalatozov’s films. It’s his first feature movie and it’s definitely not a film for everyone, it’s a propaganda flick from a long forgotten time. Three years before Hitler gains the power in Germany and in the year when the world economic crisis hits Europe the strongest, a young filmmaker shows his talents for the first time. Michail Kalatozov, since a few month one of our most acclaimed directors, is a master of moving pictures.

and

EFFORT. Everything in Svanetia is a relentless, constant, unyielding effort. Running, riding, working, starving, drinking. Kalatozov arranges his images so they clash with white-hot energy, sparks flying over the gritty black and white landscapes of Svaneti in violent synthesis. Soviet propaganda always excites for the dynamism of its images, especially in its paeans to industrialisation as an opportunity to liberate the working classes from feudalism; Dovzhenko’s exceptional Ivan comes to mind. They’re tremendously optimistic films even in their depictions of brutal drudgery, because there’s always the promise of a better world for all. And that’s a joyous thing, even if Communism isn’t your ideological cup of tea. The effort of life will be alleviated by new roads, new salt, new strength. You just have to believe in the power of the people.

My take:

A striking, if primitive, film. The director really conveys the hardship of living in Sventia with images of sweating men, laboring women, and the stark, weathered faces of the people. In contrast, the countryside and mountains are beautiful, but nature is not a friend as evidenced by a summer snowstorm that nearly claims the barley crop the villagers depend upon. There is a moment of light-heartedness when the women thresh the barley with a mother and her cradled infant sitting atop the thresher to provide weight but otherwise the grimness is pretty unrelenting. The inventive if simplistic cinematography is an example of the early work of director Mikhail Kalatozov, who would go on to create the incredible The Cranes are Flying, featured here several months ago. It’s got elements of pro-Soviet propaganda but it’s also a fascinating look at a little-known world on the fringes of civilization. I’m awarding it ⭐⭐ for its historical and cinematic value.

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov

Writer: Mikhail Kalatozov

Synopsis:

Life in Svenetia is hard. Backbreaking labor is the rule of the day. Robber barons threaten the impoverished people. Something as simple as salt is a rare resource that men risk all to obtain.

Theirs is a simple world of work and ritual, birth and death. Their faith is harsh and unforgiving. Women who birth during funerals are cast out. Animals are driven to death and bled out as sacrifices.

But a new way is coming. The Soviets are building a road to Svenetia. Soon precious resources like salt will no longer dictate life’s terms. The grip of superstition will be loosened. Trees fall; rocks splinter. The workers are on the move!

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9 comments

  1. vao

    When I first saw that movie, several decades ago, what stuck in my memory was:

    1) the villages with their tower-like houses in a mountainous landscape;
    2) the snowstorm in summer;
    3) the animals licking any substance containing salt.

    Obtaining salt is one of the central element of the story.

  3. ambrit

    Since I recently obtained a copy of Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North,” and am still searching for an afordable copy of his film about the fishermen of the Aran Islands, “Man of Aran,” I do wonder about cross fertilization here. Both focus on harsh lives, and the rigours of survival in living ‘with’ nature.
    I’m beginning to believe that Gibson was too optimistic in his depiction of “The Jackpot” in some of his novels. A post-industrial world could well devolve to conditions for “average” people as shown in these early films.
    The wonder of the early Soviet propaganda works, and what I consider their basic strength, is that they promise a better life for everyone, not just some insular elite.
    Stay safe.

    1. ambrit

      Thanks for that website. Useful. Now to get a gross of 8Gb thumbdrives. Then store the copies in a Farraday cage of some sort. You never know when an EMP will mess up your neighbourhood.
      Stay safe.

  5. Jeff W

    I was going to watch just the first few minutes to just see what the film was like and ended up watching the entire thing. The images are striking and the whole film was compelling to watch.

    From an essay written for the 2022 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which showed the film:

    This ethnographic documentary was unlike any ever seen before. This early in his career [Mikhail] Kalatozov was much too ambitious artistically to conjure anything routine. Instead he painted a tragic picture of an exotic, long-suffering people, often given to extravagant, self-destructive behavior under the influence of long-held religious practices. In order to tell a story that reached greater depths of emotion, Kalatozov used techniques borrowed from Soviet filmmakers like Eisenstein, with stunning compositions, Dutch angles, as well as the use of nonprofessional Svan actors to represent the physical types that would conjure the primitive texture he sought.
    …

    Kalatozov was criticized again for an excessive attention to form [following criticism of an earlier, never-released film, The Blind Woman, for “formalism”] and for overplaying the backwardness of the Svan, and even of having invented some aspects of their life for dramatic impact. And, no doubt, for limiting the heroic role of the Soviet government to a few minutes at the end of the film. He got another chance to make a film, 1932’s Nail in the Boot, which was criticized even more severely. He withdrew from directing and did not get another filmmaking opportunity until 1939. In subsequent years, nonetheless, Salt for Svanetia has grown in stature, earning high praise from Andrei Tarkovsky. Film scholar Jay Leyda called it “the most powerful documentary film I have ever seen.”

  6. Bizarre Lineage

    This was a thoughtful article about The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: Salt For Svanetia (1930) Run Time: 49M | naked capitalism. I also found Bizarre Lineage useful for readers exploring the same area.

  8. Balakirev

    Bravo for featuring one of the most poetic of documentaries and a personal favorite of mine, Salt for Svanetia! I’ve only seen five of Kalatozov’s films, but each demonstrates a human value that overwhelms its political one. It is also a remarkable work, paying close attention to physical environment and that created by the people who live within it. Given Kalatozov’s lack of concern for any blatant propagandistic message, it’s no wonder Kalatozov had such a bad time of it with Soviet era censors and the so-called “film union” of its period.

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