The footage from Dziga Vertov’s films is edited together with Yegor Letov’s song “And the world has an hour until midnight.” As you might know, Dziga Vertov was born in Poland, was a Jew by nationality, worked in Ukraine, and stayed in history as a Soviet director. After the First World War, he was forced to flee from his home town. And during World War II, his parents died in the Holocaust. Culture could not save us from the horrors of the Holocaust. And could not save us from what is happening now. But only she will give us strength, when all this is over, to look for common ground. In his “Man with a Movie Camera” Vertov filmed Odessa, Kyiv, Kharkiv…which today are dying under bombardments. Today, when it is so difficult to find words, I once again want to remind you of the absurdity of any war. And that we do not choose nationality. But we choose whether to remain human in the current circumstances. From chronicles of weddings, childbirth and funerals, a universal history of human existence is built.

The video also included footage from the film “The Eleventh”, where Vertov glorified the achievements of the 11th year of the revolution. Taken out of their usual context, these shots lose their ideological fervor and acquire an eerie tone. Today I do not yet have the language to repent for the crimes of my country. For crimes committed in my name. There is only a feeling that the old world is over, and it will never be the same again.

Lyrics:

The wind choked in the flame of a candle
Doors ran into their keys
Lanterns waving red hands
And the world has an hour to midnight
And the world has an hour to midnight.

People come from an incomprehensible execution
With evil fists tearing the chest
With the hated flag crumpling the ranks
And above the world the sky is half of the disaster.
And above the world the sky is half of the disaster.

The righteous killer cries at the cross
Proud bride, stone veil
Vile heroes of the fiery night
And the world has an hour to midnight
And the world has an hour to midnight.

I’m born five minutes before the world starts
I’m dying five minutes before the end of the world
But in these five minutes the world is praying for me
The world is praying for me!
The world is praying for me!
The world is praying for me!