Happy birthday, Obskura!

On this day a year ago we officially started working on what became known as Obskura.

Our exploration of little known Soviet and Russian cinema began with Viy (1967). Who knew back then that this film, alongside with Savage Hunt of King Stakh (1978), will be included in the programme of our first screening, daringly titled Soviet Horror Movie Night and supported by legendary Mosfilm and Belarusfilm studios.

This year we did a lot of research and writing, film festival chronicling and subtitling. Next year we aspire for Obskura to grow out of blog into a film distribution project, that will give you direct access to neglected cinema from the former Eastern Bloc countries, subtitled in your language.

Enough with nostalgia and high hopes, as today we also wanted to remember popular and the most read posts on Obskura in this past year:

SEX FREAKS ARE AFTER STATE BONDS: THE TAILOR FROM TORZHOK (1925)

One of our first widely read and shared posts is about Yakov Protazanov’s The Tailor from Torzhok (Закройщик из Торжка, 1925), a NEP-era eccentric comedy with more sex in it, than in the whole Pre-code Hollywood.

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TOP 10 UNDEAD IN SOVIET/RUSSIAN FILM

This post about how Soviet film-makers smuggled undead to cinema screens despite Socialist Realism became our most shared post on Facebook, seen by several thousands of people.

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EROTIC MOMENTS IN SOVIET CINEMA LANDMARKS

Our overview of the erotic moments of the USSR’s official cinema featured a lot of naked breasts and therefore reached thousands of people (also thanks to Slovenian journal Ekran for sharing it!).