Plot synopsis

A satirical comedy mocking the way some Americans think about Soviet Russia.

Commentaries and bibliography

Beyond the canon: Soviet cinema, , 2024

Dix grands films soviétiques des années 1920 (Vidéos), Eleonora GOLDMAN, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2023

DVD : Mr West au Pays des Bolchéviks de Lev Kouléchov ; Miss Mend, de Boris Barnet et Fedor Ozep, François ALBERA, 1895, 2016

Women film pioneers: Aleksandra Khokhlova, Ana OLENINA, wfpp.columbia.edu, 2014

Les origines du cinéma soviétique : un regard neuf, Myriam TSIKOUNAS, Cerf, 1992

This film marks the birth of the Red Western. Made by Lev Kuleshov, teacher of the Moscow film school and pioneer of Soviet montage, the actors included students Boris Barnet and Vladimir Pudovkin, on the brink of their own careers. With live music by the Metropole Orchestra.
Lev Kuleshov’s first feature film pays homage to Hollywood films and film techniques in a number of ways. The title character Mr. West resembles Harold Lloyd, and the acrobatic cowboy Jeddy, Mr. West’s bodyguard, is based on Douglas Fairbanks, both of whom were quite popular with Russian audiences. The film is a political comedy, but it draws on other genres that Kuleshov identified with Hollywood, including Westerns, action-adventure films and slapstick.
The film’s main comic target was the political divide between Soviet Russia and the United States, caused, Kuleshov suggests, by international misunderstandings. Although many Americans in the 1920s may have feared the intentions of Revolutionary Russia, Kuleshov saw around him a Russian population that embraced America’s cultural exports, especially its movies. It is telling that Kuleshov applied an American model of film making to a Soviet film that he hoped might help bridge the political gap between the United States and the USSR.
(http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/films/neobychainye-priklyucheniya-mistera-vesta-v-strane-bolshevikov/)

Selected in the following festivals or events :

- Soviet comedies, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2024

- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2024

- Best Soviet films according to Russia Beyond, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023

- The Golden Age of Soviet Cinema : 1924-1930, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023

- Musicales franco-russes, Toulouse (France), 2020

- Pessac International History Film Festival, Pessac (France), 2018

- Russian Film Festival For Another Russia, Paris (France), 2018

- Fondation Jérôme Seydoux. Octobre 1917, une révolution en images, Paris (France), 2017

- VOD or DVD release in France of the film:, Different cities (France), 2015

- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 2011

- Era New Horizons IFF, Wroclaw (Poland), 2011

- Moscow, St-Petersburg, two capitals, one country, Toulouse (France), 2010

- Année croisée France-Russia, Different cities (France), 2010

- Pessac International History Film Festival, Pessac (France), 2009

- 'Il Cinema Ritrovato' Festival, Bologna (Italy), 2008

- International Film Festival of the Commonwealth Countries "Moscow Premiere", Moscow (Russia), 2008

- International Film Festival Tarkovski, Ivanovo (Russia), 2008

- Europalia Russia 2005, Brussels (Belgium), 2005

- Images Russie 1908-1930 au musée d'Orsay, Paris (France), 2005

- Nantes Russian Film Festival, Nantes (France), 1998

Photos and videos