
Semyon Raytburt
Directing
Known For

An excellent 1969 documentary, S. Raitburt’s The Kuleshov Effect, made about a year before Lev Kuleshov died, and interviewing him at length, both about his filmmaking and his far lengthier career as a teacher (including some fascinating remarks about Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo). Also interviewed is the father of Russian Formalism, Viktor Shklovsky, who worked with Kuleshov as a screenwriter on a Jack London adaptation, By the Law, in 1926.
The Kuleshov Effect

In a compartment of the Moscow-Novosibirsk train, a young physicist meets famous film actors. The conversation accidentally comes to Einstein, and the woman begins to explain to her fellow travelers what the theory of relativity is. The actors are incidentally on their way to the shooting of a film about physicists, but they do not understand the subject at all.
What is the Theory of Relativity?

On the example of the history of the discovery of the "solar substance" Helium, the history of the most important discoveries in the field of physics and chemistry of the early XX century is given.
Operation «Helium»

On the example of the history of the discovery of the "solar substance" Helium, the history of the most important discoveries in the field of physics and chemistry of the early XX century is given.
Operation «Helium»

The near future. A fantastic experiment using the test of the mathematician Alan Turing, in which an examiner, a human, and a robot take part. During the test, the examiner must determine who is behind the wall: a person or a thinking machine. The experiment is conducted with one goal: to find out whether a machine can think.
Who’s Behind the Wall?

A physicist, a director of popular-science films, and a sports fan talk about the structure of the atom between periods of a hockey game they watch on TV.
Physics at Half Past Nine
A group of young scientists conducts an experiment, putting themselves in the conditions of the people of the Stone Age. With the help of stone tools, they procure food and fire, and make themselves comfortable in nature.
Vacations in the Stone Age

A young man and a young woman spend the evening by the campfire. The girl asks about the starry sky and the photometric paradox, and the young man answers her with lyrical statements of great people about the infinity of the Universe. Frustrated, she rides off on a motorcycle with another young man.
A Lesson in Astronomy

A mathematician offers to sell his soul to the devil for a proof or disproof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Based on "The Devil and Simon Flagg" by Arthur Porges.
The Mathematician and the Devil
About the work of artists of the Russian Federation.
By the Roads of Life
A portrait film dedicated to the muralists Leonid Polishchuk and Svetlana Shcherbinina. They talk about their main works: the stained glass window “Hydronauts” at the Institute of Oceanology and the mosaic “The Healing of a Man” on the building of the library of the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute.
Seven Years and the Whole Life

The film is based on the letters and memoirs of Anton Chekhov and members of his family and reconstructs the details of everyday life and of the writer's relationships with his brothers and sister.
The Chekhovs

About modeling some principles of the brain.
Brain and Machine
Conductor Rem Gekht leads the rehearsal of a school brass band. The sessions are interspersed with the children talking about the musical instruments they play.
An Orchestra Rehearsal
A portrait film of the Soviet popular music. Popular performers and composers talk about their work. The film includes, both on the screen and behind it, the songs “A Song Is Going in a Circle”, “A Sports march”, “At a Nameless High Ground”, “Moscow Nights”, “The Main Thing, Guys, Is Not to Get Old At Heart”, "Smile”, “The Song Remains With the Person”.
Seven Soviet Songs

A propaganda film aimed at American audiences during the early years of the Cold War.
In the Soviet Union
No description available.
A Billion Years and One Hour

A Pushkin scholar Valentin Berestov analyzes the works of Aleksandr Pushkin. In particular, he proves that the “folk” songs in them were written by the poet himself.
The Ladder of Senses

A detailed analysis of the triumph of the Art Nouveau style in architecture and other art forms in the Russian Empire at the turn of the 20th century.
The Russian Modern
It is dedicated to the moral ideas of Socrates' philosophy.