ENTHUSIASM: SYMPHONY OF THE DONBAS: Ukrainian Film Week at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi

Dziga Vertov | 1930 | Ukrainian SSR | 1h05m | Presented in the original Russian and Ukrainian audio with English subtitles

ENTHUSIASM: SYMPHONY OF THE DONBAS captures the Donbas at the height of Soviet industrialisation, when coal, steel, labour and propaganda were being turned into a new image of the future. Dziga Vertov made the film during the first Five-Year Plan, using mines, factories, workers, radio broadcasts and public ceremonies as the raw material for one of Soviet cinema’s first major sound experiments.

Vertov had already transformed film language with MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA. Here, he pushed further by making sound central to the film’s structure. Machinery, voices, music, slogans and industrial noise are carefully arranged to shape the pacing, rhythm and editing. Sound does not simply accompany the image. It drives the film forward.

The politics are impossible to ignore. The film celebrates Soviet labour and the forced march toward industrial modernity, while also showing the violence of that transformation. Religious ritual and older forms of village life are presented as obstacles to be swept away by coal, steel and collective production.

Screening before EARTH, ENTHUSIASM gives our Ukrainian Film Week its first major contrast: Donbas as Soviet industrial future, followed by Dovzhenko’s vision of land, harvest, rural death and uneasy transformation. Machine first. Earth after. You can also get tickets for both films with our discounted Double Film Pass.

FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00,.serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/