Film Produktion der UdSSR 1931/32 (Film Production of the USSR 1931/32)

Berlin: Handelsvertretung der UdSSR in Deutschland/ Trade Delegation of the USSR in Germany, 1931. First edition. Softcover. vg- to vg+. Quarto. 75pp. Original lusterous silver paper string-bound wrappers, with red-orange lettering, printed in a striking modernist typefont and the image of the hammer and sickle. Printed by the acclaimed German printing house Dr. Selle-Eysler AG.

This extremely scarce German publication presents a catalog promoting 36 Soviet films, intended to be distributed internationally, for the year 1931-1932. Films listed here include works from a number of influential and pioneering filmmakers of Soviet Cinema, including Sergei Einsenstein, Dziga Vertov, Alexander Dovzhenko, Mikhail Kalatozov, Yakov Protazanov, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, and Ilya Trauberg, as well as other historically important works from the late silent and early Soviet sound period, and films now considered lost.

All films here were released domestically in the Soviet union between 1928 and 1932. The initial text page states that all the films listed here were productions of the film studios Sojuskino (or "Soyuzkino", which was renamed Lenfilm in 1934) or Meschrabpomfilm (Mezhrabpomfilm). However there are number of films throughout which are credited to various other regional studios of the USSR as well.

The text is printed trillingually in German, English and French throughout, with the cover text in German. The text about each film includes director and cinematographer credits, with additional limited crew and/or cast credits and a short synopsis/appraisal. Each text page is accompanied by a photo-collage or photo-montage of numerous b/w photographic still images from the film (photographic reproductions) on the facing page. The final two pages contain a table of contents, and a list of other films mentioned at some point in the text but not shown.

The films included here, in order are:
- "Enthusiasm" (1930, Dir. Dziga Vertov, here as "Symphony of Coal", documentary)
- "Road to Life" (1931, Dir. Nikolai Ekk, here as "Safe Guidance Into Life", considered the first Soviet sound film)
- "Alone" (1931, Dirs. Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, music by Dmitri Shostakovich)
- "Tommy" (1931, Dir. Yakov Protazanov)
- "The Mechanical Traitor" (1931, Dir. Aleksey Dmitriev)
- "The Blue Express" (1929, Dir. Ilya Trauberg)
- "And Quiet Flows the Don" (1930, Dirs. Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Ivan Pravov, here as "The Peaceful River Don")
- "The Earth Is Thirsty" (1930, Dir. Yuli Raizman, here as "The Thirsty Soll" [sic])
- "Post" (1929, Dir. Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, re-released in 1930 as the first Soviet animated color and sound film)
- "The General Line" (1929, Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, here as "The Struggle for the Earth")
- "Judas" (1930, Dir. Evgeniy Ivanov-Barkov)
- "The Struggle for Life" (Dir. Vladimir Korolevich, documentary)
- "Arsenal" (1929, Dir. Alexander Dovzhenko)
- "Turksib" (1929, Dir. Victor A. Turin, documentary)
- "Nomads" (1932, Dir. Aleksandr Litvinov, documentary, known in Russian as "Emigranty iz tsvetushchei strany")
- "Cities and Years" (1930, Dir. Yevgeni Chervyakov)
- "Fragment of an Empire" (1929, Dir. Fridrikh Ermler, here as "The Man Who Lost His Memory")
- "Revolt in the Desert" (1931, Dir. Nikolai Tikhonov, here as "Aina")
- "Holiday of St. Jorgen" aka "St. Jorgen's Day" (1930, Dir. Yakov Protazanov)
- "Earth" (1930, Dir. Alexander Dovzhenko, here as "The Soil")
- "Anush" (1931, Dir. Ivan Perestiani)
- "The Ape and the Man" (Dir. Winnitzky, documentary)
- "The Rubicon" (1931, Dir. Vladimir Vaynshtok)
- "Salt for Svanetia" (1930, Dir. Mikhail Kalatozov, documentary, his first film, here as "Jim Schuante")
- "The Gipsy Boy" (Dir. V. Sharonsky)
- "Bad Nerves" aka "Sick Nerves" (1929, Dir. Noi Galkin, docudrama)
- "Igdenbu" (1930, Dir. Hamo Beknazarian)
- "Mirabo" aka "Mirabeau" (1930, Dir. Arnold Kordjum)
- "Yeyo Put" (1929, Dirs. Aleksandr Shtrizhak and Dmitri Poznansky, here as "The Soldier's Wife")
- "Karmelyuk" (1931, Dir. Faust Lopatinsky)
- "Transport of Fire" (1930, Dir. Aleksandr Ivanov)
- "Caucasian Love" (1928, Dir. Nikoloz Shengelaia, here as "Elisso")
- "Son of the Land" (1931, Dir. Eduard Ioganson, here as "The Son of His Country")
- "Postoronnyaya Zhenshchina" (1929, Dir. Ivan Pyryev [Ivan Pyrev], his first film, here as "The Other Woman)
- "Cain and Artem" (Dir. Pavel Petrov-Bytov, adapted from Maxim Gorky)
- "The Ghost That Never Returns" (1930, Dir. Abram Room, here as "The Human Arsenal")

Wrappers with some light creases and scratches. A few minor stains to the front cover. Extremities lightly rubbed, with a few small chips along the spine. String-tied binding still tight. Interior clean throughout, with a closed tear page to the bottom margin of page 27. Wrappers in very good-, inteiror in very good+ condition overall. A great copy of a historically important and scarce peice of film history. Many of the films presented here, are now lost and/or have been rarely seen. OCLC locates only two copies worldwide.