China in Flames (1925)

• 66%
• 1925
• Animation
• History
• Nikolai Khodataev
• Zenon Komissarenko
• Youry Merkulov

CHINA IN FLAMES rallies popular support for the Soviet Union's alliance with China using an eclectic array of animation techniques and rhetorical strategies. Bold cut-out caricatures of greedy imperialists give way to an allegorical story about rice farmers done in the style of Chinese watercolors. A heroic depiction of a railroad strike follows a crude sketch on the repressive presence of Western missionaries. As with many of the classics of Soviet montage, CHINA IN FLAMES crystallizes abstractions of economics and politics in its rhythmic editing and strikingly graphic approach to composition and written text.