Dschim Schwante!

While modernity took hold in other regions of the Soviet Union by the late 1920s, life in Upper Svaneti, a high mountain valley in the Caucasus, is still shaped by ancient traditions and customs. The inhabitants maintain their daily lives in the community surrounded by imposing defensive towers and make their living from sheep farming and work in the quarry. Due to the difficult weather conditions, the valley is cut off from the outside world for most of the year – a new road is intended to provide relief. Already in his debut, the future mastery of the iconoclastic Kalatozov is evident, which immediately drew the attention of Soviet Russian censorship and swiftly banned the film from theaters. Today, it is considered an undisputed milestone of ethnographic cinema.