Based around an actual event that occurred in the Ukranian Civil War, ARSENAL is an important addition to the complex, montage-based works of director Alexander Dovzhenko. An outnumbered group of Bolsheviks defend their besieged city from invading nationalist troops; Hiding out in the city's munitions plant (The "Arsenal" to which the title refers), the battle rages to an intense conclusion, with all of Dovzhenko's dizzying skills as a director employed to stunning effect.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - Russian
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Vance Kepley - Film Historian/Author

Distributor Notes: This avant-garde masterpiece from renowned Ukranian director Alexander Dovzhenko employs the most complex and elliptical montage style of any Soviet masters in this treatment of events from the Ukranian Civil War. Based on an actual incident from 1913, the story concerns a group of Bolsheviks who battle counter-revolutionary nationalist troops in Kiev, putting up an Alamo-like defense of their cause inside the city's "Arsenal" munitions plant. Outnumbered by the nationalist troops, the defenders demonstrate their revolutionary spirit in the climactic battle which displays a dazzling mixture of traditional Ukranian folklore with modernist film techniques for a dazzling collage!

Source: Image Entertainment, Inc.

Semyon Svashenko: 

Alexander Dovzhenko: