VUFKU

The final film of Alexander Dovzhenko's "Ukraine Trilogy," and his last silent film. Earth follows a Ukrainian village through the upheaval of collectivization: the arrival of the first tractor, the resistance of the kulak landowners, and the murder of the young communist Vasyl by a hostile neighbor. Dovzhenko was commissioned to make propaganda for Stalin's farm policy, but what he delivered is a lyrical, almost pantheistic meditation on birth, death, and the soil. The film is built from images, apples in the sun, a farmer's face against the sky, a body laid out in the orchard, that have been quoted by filmmakers for decades. It was banned by Soviet authorities nine days after release. At the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, a poll of critics named it one of the twelve greatest films ever made. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Drama · Silent

Dziga Vertov's radical experiment: a day in the life of Soviet cities shot by his brother Mikhail Kaufman, assembled with every trick the silent era allowed — split screens, double exposure, freeze frames, slow motion, and editing so fast it still feels modern. Vertov's "Kino-Eye" manifesto argued the camera could reveal truths invisible to the naked eye, and the film keeps showing its own machinery, including the cameraman at work and the audience watching. Routinely ranked among the greatest documentaries ever made. The film is in the public domain.

Documentary · Silent