The “fragment” in this film “Обломок империи” is one man, a soldier in World War I, Corporal Filimonov, who has been in a shell-shocked daze for ten years. He slowly starts to remember something about the war and his life before it. There’s a striking dream sequence where he is on the battlefield facing a German soldier, who is also himself. The two men (it’s the same actor, Fyodor Nikitin) pause and smile at each other.

The fighting comes to a stop until the generals on both sides order the canons to fire. All the other soldiers on both sides are played by the same actor Fyodor Nikitin.

He returns to Saint Petersburg to try to find his wife, but her address is registered “unknown”. He asks the owner of the factory where he worked before the war…not realising that there has been a revolution. The former capitalist tells him “we are all equal now”… He wanders around Saint Petersburg which is shown as a totally alien new environment, and desperately asks.. “who’s in charge?”

The restored version of this film (2018) is available as a webm file in wikipedia with creative commons licence. This version includes about 40 minutes of extra footage which was either censored or lost out of the original film. I am comparing with this version on youtube which is only 71 minutes long.

What strikes me most is the adventurous camerawork, which allows the director to show the main character’s inner life, nightmares etc. Also the complex, objective and adult style of the storytelling which is quite rare in contemporary films. And finally the work of the actors, especially Nikitin in the main role.

This is a silent film. The first soviet “talkie” would come out in 1931 - Road to Life “Путёвка в жизнь”