SOVIET FILM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 321, 7 September 1932, Page 5

SOVIET FILM

(Press. Assn.-

PROHIB1TED IN AUSTRALIA AS BEING MISLEABING PROPAGANDA

— By Telegraph — Copyright).

Rec. Sep. 6, 11 p.m. Sydney, Sept. 6. The Federal Government has prohibited the film by the Labour organisation the "Five Year Plan" purporting to reveal the tru-e conditions in Soviet Russia, on the ground that the scenes and situations have been specially enacted and are misleading. The Government considers that it is under no obligation to provide facilities for any sort of Soviet propaganda. "The Five Year Plan" is described as an educatipnal t-ravelogue, sliowing how the mighty industries of the Soviet are created and carried on. People behind the film argue that this is not propaganda, bub that^ it ir, the only way in which to rehabilitate Russia. Described as an actual account of tho greatest social experiment in the world, "The Five Year Plan" shows the Russian population of 160,000,000, drawn from 200 different nationalities. The Manchester Guardian commenting on the film said: "We are shown the people living in various parts of the Soviet's distant frontiers — strange isolated people in process of being welded into a modern State .... The film is the first picture on a large scale of what Russia wishes to show the world. It presents a good opportunity to see plainly tho aims and objects of the Plan." In London "The Five Year Plan" had a hundred screenings at the Forum before being transferred to other West End theatres. In New York it showed for months and America was complimentary about the picture. "In a class by itself," said the New York Daily News, and the New York Sun described it as showing "the newborn soul of mankind." The New York Review went further with "the most important film in the world to-day."