The 1965 year make documentary “Before the Bar of History” directed by Fridrikh Ermler will be screened and debated in the Presidential Library

A documentary movie entitled “Before the Bar of History” directed in 1965 by Fridrikh Ermler will be screened and debated on November 23, 2017, at 3 pm in the Presidential Library; the next scheduled meeting of the Cinema Club this time will take its right place in the agenda of the retrospective of film reruns named “Revolution on the screen” of the “Beginning” XVI International Film Festival of Film Debuts. At the end of the session, the film will be discussed together with spectators from the remote sites in different regions of the country.

Friedrich Markovich Ermler — one of the furthermost acclaimed film directors of the Stalin epoch — began his career in the heyday of silent movies. A four-time recipient of the Stalin Prize (in 1941, twice in 1946, and in 1951), the Knight of the Order of Lenin (1935) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1950), Ermler was a great master who has literally given his life to the cinema.

Movie experts call his “Before the Bar of History” the one of the most paradoxical films in the history of our cinema. Its very idea could’ve been born except during the Khrushchev’s thaw. The screenplay setup is the dialogue between the historian-actor and Vasily Shulgin, the leader of the State Duma, one of the organizers of the White Army and an opponent of the Bolsheviks. It was this discussion about the events of 1914—1945 that became the basis of the film, although it is all filled of acting and shooting on location. As the director wrote, the movie’s objective is to prove that the former monarchist and white emigrant “Shulgin is condemned by the history itself, and that he understands this today, he only does not want to accept this and to agree.”

The most important argument in the polemic was, according to Ermler’s plan, the reality itself, therefore, the film includes a lot of documentaries: Moscow meets Y. A. Gagarin, the graduates dance in white dresses on the Neva embankment, the camera fixes the sign “Higher Party School” on the doors of the former State Duma — all this was to symbolize the triumph of a new life, the beginning of which was laid in 1917. Poster-likeness, propaganda style so typical for Soviet documentary to a large extent manifested itself in this movie. However, the most interesting were the frames saturated with the atmosphere of the past: the salon car, where the renunciation of Nicholas II took place, chronicle cut depicting the speeches of the Duma deputies — all accompanied by Shulgin’s voice over.

Cinema Club will meet in the multimedia hall of the Presidential Library at 3 Senatskaya Square, St. Petersburg, RF 190000.

Please confirm your presence over the phone: (812) 305 1635; + 7 921 594 16 13 or email Elena Viktorovna Smolina at smolina@prlib.ru.

The media representatives’ accreditation is open until 2 pm on November 22, 2017.

Please, submit your applications for accreditation in the attached form with the “Media accreditation” note in the subject line over email to Alexandra Khudyakova hudjakova@prlib.ru, Press Service of the Presidential Library, phone +7 (812) 305 1621 (ext. 167), mobile: +7 (981) 788 2808.

Your application on the attached form must specify a media name, a full name of media representative, a date and a place of the representative’s birth, full passport or picture id details (series, number, when and by what body it was issued, place of residence), a carry-on equipment (including notebooks and tablet computers), and the contact phone numbers.

Please be advised, that the event participants and guests enter the Presidential Library through the entrance № 1, and the media representatives — through the entrance № 2 by appointment only and without any exceptions upon presentment of passport or picture id.