Taming the frontier: Aleksandr Litvinov’s expedition films and representations of indigenous minorities in the Far East

Abstract

This article explores the imagery of the Soviet Far East and its indigenous inhabitants in the films of Aleksandr Litvinov, who played a prominent role in establishing the expedition film practice in the Soviet Union. Analysing his early travelogues, I revisit the Soviet debate about the standards of cinematic authenticity and demonstrate a deep interconnectedness of cinematographic and literary representational practices. Contextual analysis of the production and reception of Forest People (1928), Through the Ussuri Area (1928), Terra Incognita (1931), Old Luven’s Hut (1935), and Girl from Kamchatka (1936), along with Litvinov’s incomplete or unpreserved films made between 1928 and 1936, offers an insight into the changing approaches towards situating a multinational frontier region within the boundaries of a composite federal state. The article emphasizes the role of individual agency in interpreting and adjusting ideological agendas of representing indigenous cultures and Soviet-inspired changes. Litvinov’s case problematizes the status of the Soviet ‘visual order’ in relation to global colonial technologies of rule and challenges the opposition of fact and fiction in cinema.