Film about the great cineaste Dziga Vertov, the poetic- revolutionary film-maker who, with his ‘Kino-eye’ theory and films such as The Man with the Camera (1929) and Enthusiasm (1931), impressed a clear stamp on film history. Film-makers Thomas Tode and Alejandro Muñoz approach Vertov from the present in their documentary portrait of this revolutionary Soviet film-maker. They travelled by train to Moscow, not only because Vertov loved trains, but also so they could mix his train shots with their own. And of course so they could tell the legendary story of the agitprop trains: the mobile cinemas with which Bolshevic film-makers travelled the Soviet Union in the Twenties to bring their political ideals to the people. In the spirit of Vertov Tode and Muñoz look round present-day Moscow with ‘Kino-eyes’, focusing on phenomena that can illustrate social change. Their travelogue is continually focused on getting to know more about Vertov while also showing contemporary Russia. In this idiosyncratic combination, this film distinguishes itself from the traditional portraits of great film-makers and of journalistic reports on the social situation of a land in crisis. For instance, the film-makers talk to Vertov’s cameraman Jakov Tolshan and to the Russian Vertov researcher Viktor Listov. The film comprises many well-selected film fragments from the oeuvre of Vertov and there are plenty of quotes from the film manifestos Vertov wrote.
