“Pigs Will Always Be Pigs” is a witty, dynamic silent comedy. At the same time it mocks narrow-mindedness, provincialism and Soviet bureaucracy driven by disorder and sabotage to complete absurd.

Graphic signs (posters and leaflets) at the film main location, Pupky train station, became an important visual component of the film. You can see slogans about the fight against “sloppiness and bureaucracy” while film constantly emphasizes the glaring discrepancy between what is written and what is happening in reality. In his way, the director mocked the official rhetoric arguing with the authority language.

Comedy is a rare genre among the preserved Ukrainian cinema of the silent period, as they were the first to be banned even before they were released due to their criticism and mockery of the then social issues. Today, “Pigs Will Always Be Pigs” is one of the best representative of the genre.

The film was made by director Hanan Shmain, a apprentice of Les Kurbas, famous Ukrainian theater director. The picture was considered lost for a long time, but in 2015 it was found at the German Bundesarchiv and returned to the collection of the Dovzhenko Centre.

The film is shown with a modern musical accompaniment, grotesque score from Albert Tsukrenko (frontman of “Hammerman Destroys Viruses”).