Salt for Svanetia

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Year Released: 1930
Rating: 3.0

Dynamic view of self-sufficiency in Russia - the people make hats, rope and gather stone for the roofs of their homes, but are severely lacking in salt (the animals, in one cringe-worthy scene, drink human urine for the salt content). It's staged, so it's more of a quasi-documentary than actual documentary, though that might be for the better, as Kalatozov, like Eisenstein and Pudovkin, gets to exercise his editing skills and really go all out with the camera set-ups: in about an hour, you get a steady stream of memorable images. Despite its prime function as communist propaganda - hell, it starts off with a quote from V. I. Lenin - this is the kind of film Man of Aran should have been.