Lev Kulechov, one of the most distinguished soviet filmmakers from the silent era, delight us with this example of ironic Soviet propagandistic film that chronicles the adventures of an American, “Mr. West,” and his faithful Cowboy bodyguard, as they visit the land of the horrible, evil Bolsheviks.

This was the first feature film that Lev Kuleshov made with a team of actors who had attended his Experimental Cine-Laboratory. In the most famous of his experiments, which has become known as the Kuleshov Effect, Kuleshov took a shot of the famous actor Ivan Mosjoukine wearing a blank expression. He then cut this shot with an image of a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, and a woman on a divan. Audiences marveled at the subtle changes in the actor’s face as Mosjoukine reacted with different emotions to the diverse images. In fact, Mosjoukine’s expression never changed, it was actually the same shot of him, repeated three times.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival