The Soviet Influence: From Turksib to Night Mail (DVD + Blu-ray) [1929]

In the early 1930s, Soviet propaganda films profoundly influenced the emerging luminaries of the British documentary film movement, shaping their ideas about film as an art form. In this specially curated edition, Viktor Turin's 1929 classic about the building of the Turkestan-Siberian railway, Turksib, is presented here alongside a number of key British documentaries including the celebrated Night Mail - all of which were made in the wake of Turksib by filmmakers whose debt to the film is very much in evidence.