Dom na vulkane

Two youngsters want to apply for Party membership. They seek their father's signature on the forms. He tells them about the labor unrest in the Baku Oil Fields in the Bad Old Days....

It's not just that the Armenian workers are always arguing with the Turkish workers. It's not just that the Mensheviks are always saying the time is not yet. It's that management doesn't care. True, they are building new homes for the workers. However, they are building them atop fields from which deadly gas leaks. They try covering it with cement for a while, but that won't hold forever, or for long. And when it breaks through....

It's an Azerbajani-Armenian co-production, telling a story about how it's wrong to fight with your fellow workers when there are real enemies out there. Quite obviously intended for approval by Moscow, it makes liberal use of Academician editing techniques, and doesn't stink on the messages. The copy I looked at was in excellent shape, showing off the startling portraiture of cinematographer Aleksandr Galperin and a love of the heavy industrial equipment of the oil fields.