Posledniy attraktsion

They're a tiny traveling circus: two clown, two acrobats, and a strong man. They're not at all political. They travel from village to village and give a show, paying no attention to the Russian Civil War. But local Bolshevik intellectual Ivan Bykov sees them as a perfect way to spread propaganda, so he requisitions the circus, and changes some of the acts to pantomimes about evil capitalists. Then he showers the locals with leaflets, and they move on. One of the acrobats, Raisa Puzhnaya, is attracted to him, much to the displeasure of her partner. It almost causes a fight, but Bykov has no love but the Revolution. He laughs and says the two of them should be married. Then they run into a White Cossack regiment....

It's a remarkably balanced work, despite its obvious propaganda value. Bykov gives a fine performance as a naive intellectual, and there is a well shot and exciting battle sequence near the end. The editing by Nikolaj Borovishki is swift, and there are few of the deliberately odd camera angles that had become a fetish of Russian film-making at this time.