Screening Dates: Thursday, October 30, 2025, 8:00 p.m. / Thursday, December 11, 2025, 8:00 p.m.

Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Screenplay: Nina Agadzhanova, Sergei Eisenstein, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Nikolay Aseev, Sergey Tretyakov
Cast: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov, Mikhail Gomorov, Aleksandr Levshin, Nina Poltavtseva, Beatrice Vitoldi

Soviet Union / 1925 / Silent / 66 min. / Black and White / Russian, English Intertitles / Turkish Subtitles 

The rebellion that sparked on a warship in the summer of 1905 grows fiercely with Eisenstein’s revolutionary montage theory. Faces as hard as stone, flags fluttering in the wind, the rhythm accelerating and slowing on the stairs, are like a chorus even without music. The “Odessa Steps” sequence is one of cinema’s most powerful examples of the transition from baby to scream, from individual to crowd. Eisenstein declares that new meaning emerges from the collision of shots; each cut gives form to another emotion.

Battleship Potemkin breaks the molds of individual epic by centering the idea of collective heroism; it walks the fine line between propaganda and poetry. As an aesthetic manifesto of resistance to the tsarist order and revolution, it transforms a historical moment into a universal call. Especially when viewed in its restored copy, the rhythm of the shots, the mathematics of the crowd scenes, and the steel discipline of the framing evoke both awe and excitement in the viewer. Even a century later, Battleship Potemkin retains its flagship status both in cinema history and in film schools.

* Mine Pakel will accompany the film with her music.
* The film will be screened in its restored version.
** We would like to thank Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi for his contribution to the program.