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Арсенал (Arsenal)

Director: Alexander Dovzhenko
Year: 1929
Run-time: 1 hr 32 min
Source: Bootleg DVD, although the quality wasn't much better than Youtube

Wikipedia

One Man's Extremely In-depth Analysis of Dovzhenko's War Trilogy

Notable for: Dovzhenko's second film in his "War Trilogy" focuses more specifically on World War I, and how Ukraine joined the Soviet state.  On a shot-by-shot basis, Dovzhenko's style matured since Zvenigora, and there are very few directors of the era who can match his cinematography.  Although the film doesn't mix genres in the same way as Zvenigora, it is still very much an avant-garde work.

Verdict:  To be overly simplistic for a moment, Dovzhenko is David Lynch, except Ukrainian and several decades early.  Both of these films are difficult to decipher in the best of conditions, but without proper care and translation, I can't recommend that you seek out these films.  Which is a shame, because even devoid of proper context there are stunning shots in his work, and I'm not surprised that there are cineastes who rank these films among the best of the silent era.
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