Joshua First is the Croft Associate Professor of History and International Studies at the Croft Institute for International Studies at the University of Mississippi.

Note on transliteration

Acknowledgements

KinoSputniks general editors’ preface

List of illustrations

Production credits

Plot summary

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Historical context and production history

Chapter 3: Film analysis

Chapter 4: Reception

Chapter 5: Conclusion: Fifty years later 

'These and future KinoSputniks will be cherished by Russian-film fans and used in courses on Russian cinema and culture. All three contribute not only to the project of writing Russian film history, but also to explorations of Russian/Soviet culture and history. In fact, whether this was intended or not, all three ultimately address the question of nationality and nation in Russian and Soviet culture: the controversial treatment of the Jews in The Commissar, the celebration of the Ukrainians in Shadows, and the place of Russia vis-à-vis the west in Russian Ark.' 

'Disputes about the existential meaning of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors were conducted within the framework of hermetic 1960s debates about how to define ‘poetic cinema’ and ‘national cinema’. As First argues, these discussions were ‘filled with allusions to the great conflict between formalism and socialist realism during the early 1930s’ (p. 45). Although these debates now have a decidedly musty aura, the film remains. First concludes his work by pointing, tantalizingly, to the films continuing influence over present day, and presumably future, filmmakers (p. 58). We shall see.'