The birth of a Soviet ‘fourth cinema’ on prime time television: Iurii Rytkheu and The Most Beautiful Ships

Abstract

ABSTRACTBased on a case study of the television film The Most Beautiful Ships (Samye krasivye korabli, 1972), directed by Anatolii Nitochkin and scripted by Chukchi writer Iurii Rytkheu, this article investigates the possibility of a ‘fourth cinema’, the cinema of indigenous peoples, in the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev (1964–1982). It examines the history of this particular film through a threefold approach that combines the film’s genesis with an aesthetic analysis and reception study. The article aims to find a place for television films in the history of cinema, and to extend the map, still under construction, of a ‘fourth cinema’ by advocating the inclusion of the USSR in its scope.