In Turkmenistan's Karakum Desert, the inhabitants of a village live under conditions of acute water shortage. A group of visiting hydraulic engineering students create a plan to solve the irrigation problem by blowing up the nearby Timur Hills. Victory over nature by successfully implementing the plan against the opposition of the local ruler, Aman-Durdy-baj, also frees the village from dependence on the despot.

(USSR 1930, director: Julij Rajzman)

In cooperation with Kino Krokodil, the Media Library of the Institute for Eastern European Studies is showing a film series on energy policy in the former Soviet Union from May to July 2021. Documentaries and feature films on the oil industry, electrification, nuclear power, desert irrigation, and gas production reconstruct Eastern Europe as a space where economic dependence on raw materials and political energy utopianism form a toxic alliance that has disastrous consequences for people and nature.

Film schedule:

05/17/21 Forty Hearts (Sorok serdec)
(USSR 1931, Director: Lev Kulešov)

31.05.21 Kerosene
(RU 2019, director: Jusup Razykov)

06/21/21 Earth Thirsts (Zemlja žaždet).
(USSR 1930, director: Julij Rajzman)

28.06.21 The Bell of Chernobyl (Kolokol Černobylja)
(USSR 1987, Director: Rollan Sergienko)

05.07.21 Pipeline (Truba)
(RU/CZ/DE 2013, Director: Vitalij Manskij)

Contact person: Susanne Strätling