Yakov Protazanov was the most prolific Russian director of the silent era whose works enjoyed consistent popularity with audiences as he adapted to the Russian Revolution and, later, the transition to sound. This first career-length study in English argues that he pursued a unique artistic vision that reflected his ambivalent position within Soviet culture of the revolutionary era.

The essays in this groundbreaking collection examine how celebrated Cambodian director Rithy Panh counters the abstraction of mass violence with a  cinema anchored in the body, the physical trace, the direct testimony, and the living landscape. They explore his unique aesthetic sensibility, examining the dynamic and sensuous images through which he suggests that “everything has a soul.”