Starring: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Aleksandrov
Director: Sergei Eisenstein, John Grierson
Running Time: 110 mins
Certificate: PG
Release Date: November 5th 2012

While a lot of people will have heard of Battleship Potemkin (although relatively few have actually seen it), there are far fewer who know anything about Drifters. And even if you have heard of it, you might still be wondering what a Soviet propaganda movie about a 1905 mutiny and a documentary-style film about herring fishing are doing together on the same disc.

What this unexpected yet rather cleverly thought out DVD & Blu-ray dual-format release from the BFI does is recreate what’s been described as ‘the most celebrated double-bill in film history’, when these two movies screened at the Tivoli cinema on London’s Strand, on November 10th, 1929. [Read more…]