Storm Over Asia: KINOfiles Film Companion 11

"'Storm over Asia' ('The Heir to Genghis Khan') was the third of Vsevolod Pudovkin's great silent films. Released in 1928 it confirmed the director's reputation and Soviet cinema's growing stature internationally. It was subsequently re-edited, sonorised and re-released in 1949. The Buriat-Mongolian actor, Valeri Inkizhinov stars as the trapper hero, Bair, a character partly inspired by the actual Revolutionary figure, Sukhebator. Many of the extras in the film had participated in the events depicted. The film acknowledges a debt to D.W. Griffith and documents the everyday life and rituals of the people living around Lake Baikal, a culture that was almost entirely suppressed in the 1930s.This KINOfile describes the circumstances under which "Storm over Asia" was produced and distributed and discusses the warm reception of the film in Russia, Germany and France. In Britain the film was widely understood as an attack on British involvement in the Russian Civil War and on colonial policy in China and India - and was banned. Amy Sargeant also examines the potency of the Genghis Khan myth for a Soviet audience, and the continuing resonance of this fine film."--Bloomsbury Publishing. ""Storm over Asia" ('The Heir to Genghis Khan') was the third of Vsevolod Pudovkin's great silent films. Released in 1928 it confirmed the director's reputation and growing stature of Soviet cinema at home and abroad. It was subsequently re-edited, sonorised and re-released in 1949." "The Buriat-Mongolian actor, Valeri Inkizhinov stars as the trapper hero, Bair, a character partly inspired by the actual Revolutionary figure, Sukhebator. Many of the extras in the film had participated in the events depicted. While certain action sequences show Pudovkin's debt to D.W. Griffith, notably the final cavalry charge and the glorious landscape surrounding Lake Baikal and the everyday life and rituals of its people, including an elaborate ceremony at a Buddhist temple. This culture was almost entirely suppressed in the 1930s." "This detailed companion to Storm over Asia describes the circumstances under which the film was produced and distributed and discusses the warm reception of the film in Russia, Germany and France. In Britain the film was widely understood as an attack on British involvement in the Russian Civil War and on colonial policy in China and India - and was banned. Amy Sargeant sets out the historical context for the film's various re-releases, the potency of the Genghis Khan myth for a Soviet audience and its continuing resonance."--Jacket