Arsenal (, also alternative title January Uprising in Kyiv in 1918) is a 1929 Soviet war film by Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko. The film was shot at Odessa Film Factory of VUFKU with the camera of cameraman Danyl Demutskyi and using the original sets made by Volodymyr Muller. The expressionist imagery, camera work and original drama were said to take the film far beyond the usual propaganda and made it one of the most important pieces of Ukrainian avant-garde cinema. The film was made in 1928 and released early in 1929. It is the second film in his "Ukraine Trilogy", the first being Zvenigora (1928) and the third being Earth (1930). The film concerns an episode in the Russian Civil War in 1918 in which the Kiev Arsenal January Uprising of workers aided the besieging Bolshevik army against the Ukrainian national Parliament Central Rada who held legal power in Ukraine at the time. Regarded by film scholar Vance Kepley, Jr. as "one of the few Soviet political films which seems even to cast doubt on the morality of violent retribution", Dovzhenko's eye for wartime absurdities (for example, an attack on an empty trench) anticipates later pacifist sentiments in films by Jean Renoir and Stanley Kubrick. Plot From the last months of World War I and the derailment of the demobilization train the story moves to the Arsenal armory in Kiev, where the Bolshevik Timosh, who has returned from the front, is the central figure. The January uprising of workers in Kiev, their confrontation with gangs of haidamaks serving the bourgeois Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and the cruelest massacre of the rebels. Cast Semyon Svashenko — Timosha Georgiy Kharkiv — Red Army Amvrosy Buchma — German soldier in glasses Dmitri Erdman — a German officer Sergey Petrov — a German soldier K. Mikhailovsky — nationalist Alexander Evdakov — Nicholas II Andrei Mikhailovsky — nationalist References External links Arsenal (full version), Odessa Film Studios Ray Uzwyshyn's Visual Exploration of Arsenal 1920s Russian-language films 1920s war drama films Soviet black-and-white films Films directed by Alexander Dovzhenko Films set in Ukraine Films set in Kyiv Odessa Film Studio Russian Civil War films Soviet silent feature films Soviet-era Ukrainian films Soviet war drama films All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration films Ukrainian war drama films Ukrainian black-and-white films Silent war drama films Soviet epic films