This is a movie in two episodes about the first five decades of Russian cinema: from its inception to 1953 - the death of Stalin and the first breath of the Thaw. The film covers the most important milestones in his development. The emergence of cinema as fair entertainment, the influence of the First World War and revolutions on the film process.
The first episode deals with the emergence and development of cinema in pre-revolutionary Russia in conditions of market competition. About the birth and discoveries of Soviet cinema of the 20s, about the arrival of sound. At the center of the narrative are the pioneers of Russian cinema: Vera Kholodnaya and Ivan Mozzhukhin, Evgeny Bauer and Yakov Protazanov, Lev Kuleshov and Vsevolod Pudovkin, Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein.
The second episode focuses on the development of cinema in the early period of the USSR under state-ideological dictatorship: from the film “Chapaev” by the Vasilyev brothers to the death of Stalin.
