The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

Lev Kuleshov's riotous satire — and one of the founding works of Soviet montage cinema. An earnest, deeply naive American businessman named Mr. West arrives in Moscow clutching his guidebook and fully expecting to encounter fur-hatted barbarians. Naturally, a gang of con artists obliges him, staging an elaborate charade of the savage Russia he fears, bilking him for all he's worth before the real Soviets step in to show him the truth. Kuleshov, the great theorist of editing whose famous "Kuleshov Effect" experiments proved that montage creates meaning, here puts his ideas into exuberant comic practice. The film doubles as a genuinely funny slapstick comedy and a sharp-witted commentary on Western perceptions of Soviet Russia — and it moves like a freight train.