IFFR 2011

Mircea Veroiu

Part two in the popular Romanian Red Western 'Transylvanian trilogy'. Made during a productive 1970s that were marked by a new freedom in subject matter, the western became a new genre put into national film production.

Signals: Red Westerns

The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians

Nikita Mikhalkov

The directorial debut of the popular actor Nikita Mikhalkov, who became an icon of Russian cinema. In his first film Mikhalkov quotes from Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns and even appears as a typical bandit in a long coat and big hat.

At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger at Home

Lev Kuleshov

Kuleshov’s adaptation of a Jack London novel follows gold-diggers on the banks of the Yukon in Alaska. This silent film has been restored by the Austrian Film Museum and will be accompanied by live music composed by Franz Reisecker. Closing film of the Red Western programme.

By the Law

Richard Groschopp

The second successful and unforgettable GDR Red Western, in which former Serbian athlete Gojko Mitic plays an Indian and where the Yugoslav mountains stand for the American Wild West. Mitic would hereafter never shake off his heroic Western image.

Chingachgook, die große Schlange

Zako Heskiya

One of three Bulgarian Red Westerns of the 1960s that was ordered by the authorities in an attempt to bring the subject of anti-fascism to a broader and younger audience. It zooms in on post-World War II Bulgaria and its partisan heroes.

The Eighth

Edmond Keosayan

Enormously successful Soviet response to the classic American Western The Magnificient Seven (1960), a film that was such a box office hit in Russia that communist party officials decided to make this ideologically correct and yet popular counterpart.

The Elusive Avengers

This film marks the birth of the Red Western. Made by Lev Kuleshov, teacher of the Moscow film school and pioneer of Soviet montage, the actors included students Boris Barnet and Vladimir Pudovkin, on the brink of their own careers. With live music by the Metropole Orchestra.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

Jerzy Hoffman

Edward Skórzewski

This Polish take on the Red Western occurs after World War II, in the territories previously inhabited by Germans. Until now it is remembered for a superb ensemble cast, with a fine leading role by actor Gustaw Holoubek as the lonely hero who must take a stand.

The Law and the Fist

Oldrich Lipsky

This 1960s cult film from Czechoslovakia is a musical parody on the American Western, spiced up with tricks by the father of Czech animator Jiri Trnka. Contains a dream cast of famous actors, and great songs by Karel Gott and Waldemar Matuska.

Lemonade Joe

Sukhbat Khamidov

This Central Asian Red Western is a superb blend of classic cowboy traits and Soviet cinema of the twenties. Taking place in a small Tajik town, a former Civil War hero takes up his gun once more when an old mosque is besieged by gold-diggers.

Meeting at the Old Mosque

Vitautas Zalakiavichus

A Red Western from Lithuania voted as the best film of 1966 by readers of the Soviet Screen film magazine. Intended to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of communism in Lithuania, it actually showcases one of the first anti-Soviet voices.

No One Wanted to Die

B. Shamshiev

Based on the novella The Smugglers of the Tian Shan, this popular Kyrgyz film takes place in the 1920s and uses the basic formula of the Red Western: a Bolshevik superman fights a violent native gang of opium traffickers.

The Red Poppies of Issyk-Kul

Ali Khamraev

One of the many Red Westerns directly inspired - even in the title - by the hugely popular American classic The Magnificent Seven (1960). Made by the rediscovered master of Soviet/Uzbek (and world) cinema Ali Khamraev.

The Seventh Bullet

Josef Mach

The first in a successful series of Red Westerns (also known as 'Sauerkraut' Westerns) made in the former GDR. A truly international co-production of the brotherhood nations directed by the Czech director Josef Mach with a lead role for Serbian athlete Gojko Mitic.

Die Söhne der Großen Bärin

Mikhail Romm

The only Red Western from the 1930s, the darkest period of Stalin’s years of terror, with a fascinating influence of silent cinema from the 1920s, and the earliest sound experiments. Made by Mikhael Romm, who later became a (propaganda) master of socialist realism.

The Thirteen

Vladimir Motyl

This cult film from Russia’s Era of Stagnation was another smash hit in the Soviet Union and is still popular today. It is the story of a red soldier who rescues women from a harem, and has got the feel of a typical film from the end of the 1960s.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025