“The Eleventh Year” was the first of three avant-garde films made by Dziga Vertov in Ukraine at the newly established VUFKU Kyiv Film Factory.

Dedicated to the achievements of the first Soviet Five-year plan, the film chronicles the rapid industrial transformation of southeastern Ukraine, turning a predominantly agrarian country into an industrial one. Its central focus is the largest construction project of its time—the building of the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station near Zaporizhzhia.

Vertov captures the flooding of the ancient Dnipro Rapids—Kodak, Nenasytets, and Vilnyi—and the surrounding villages; the electrification of the Dnipro region, including the village of Tyvriv and the city of Kamianske; mining operations in Makiivka and other towns of the Donbas; and mass rallies in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), and Moscow. In the film, industrialization naturally gives way to militarization and preparations for a future war—presented, of course, as purely defensive, under the slogan of “not surrendering the gains of the Revolution.”

To capture many of the film’s spectacular industrial images, cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman—Vertov’s brother—climbed factory chimneys, rode inside mine carts, and suspended himself from aerial cableways. During one particularly demanding shoot at a steelworks, the extreme heat burned through the crew’s shoes and destroyed part of the film stock, while Kaufman himself suffered burns to his hands.

The film features a contemporary musical score composed by Anton Baibakov.