The Kennington Bioscope is a regular cinema event featuring live accompaniment to silent films that takes place at the Cinema Museum.

The main feature is Salt for Svanetia (1930), directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, who went on to make The Cranes are Flying (1957) and I am Cuba (1964).

This unforgettable documentary about Svan people living in the isolated mountain village of Ushguli in Svanetia, a remote part of Soviet Georgia. Containing some propaganda elements, it shows the daily lives of the villagers before going on to show how the region is opened up by the construction of a Soviet-backed road, which allows the villagers access to salt, which in the past was in short supply. The film suffered from criticism by Stalinist authorities, and Kalatozov fell out of favour after the release of his next film Nail in the Boot (1931). The film has latterly been reassessed, with praise coming from film historians such as Jey Leyda and directors like Andrei Tarkovsky.

The supporting programme will be a screening of Tales of the Thousand and One Nights (1921), by Russian emigre director Viktor Tourjansky. A enthusiastic article on this film is available here.

This will be a 9.5mm tinted print from the collection of Christopher Bird.

Anyone interested in silent film should visit the website for more info.

Tickets & Pricing

£5. Seats are limited, so please request an invitation using the email kenbioscope@gmail.com.