Torn Boots (1933)
Working with children led Barskaya to create superb direct sound and an inspired style of shooting. Don’t look for conventional cinematic syntax here. The film is chaotic in the way that Soviet films still knew how to be, and Langlois couldn’t help but be seduced by its rebellious spirit, its anarchy and love of children, comparable to Vigo’s Zero de conduite. As well as being a film made with and for children, it offers a complex take on Western society. Pre-Nazi Germany is not named as such but is carefully reconstructed, possibly under advice from Karl Radek, and children offer a playful reflection of class struggle – doubly excluded, as proletarians and as minors. “They play in the same way that they live”, one intertitle says. The interaction between their comical games and the yet more ludicrous ones played by adults is developed on several levels.
Director: Margarita Barskaya
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Mikhail Klimov as Pastor |
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Ivan Novoseltsev as Valter's father |
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Varvara Alyokhina as School teacher |
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Klavdiya Polovikova as Blind woman |
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Vladimir Uralskiy as Police agent |
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Lev Losev as |
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Nikolay Losev as |
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Anna Chekulaeva as Valter's mother |
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Natalia Sadovskaya as |
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Olga Bazanova as (uncredited) |
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Georgi Millyar as Passerby (uncredited) |
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Vladimir Mikhaylov as Passerby (uncredited) |
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Aleksandr Timontayev as Policeman (uncredited) |
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Evgeniy Tokmakov as (uncredited) |
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Nikolai Yarochkin as Worker (uncredited) |
| Directing | Margarita Barskaya | Director |
| Writing | Margarita Barskaya | Writer |
| Sound | Vissarion Shebalin | Original Music Composer |
| Camera | Georgi Bobrov | Director of Photography |
| Camera | Sarkis Gevorkyan | Director of Photography |
| Sound | David Blok | Original Music Composer |
| Art | Vladimir Egorov | Production Design |
| Production | Moisey Aleynikov | Producer |
