Soiuzdetfilm

Abstract

From the beginnings of the medium, children have been among the most passionate cinemagoers, and children have been ubiquitous in film. This chapter analyses how the Soviets pioneered children's cinema, how they attempted to confront the problems associated with this form, and to mobilize the symbolic potential of the child to shape films to their own ideological requirements in the pre-World War II period through the Soiuzdetfilm studio. The author looks at the workings of Soiuzdetfilm, its search for generic models and a workable style for films for children, and illustrate this through a case study of the studio's greatest success in this era: Mark Donskoi's The Childhood of Maxim Gorky, seen in the wider context of the studio, the problem of the child actor, and the influence of Soviet children's film internationally.

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