Soviet Bus Stops
2024•56m•8.3•Released
Documentary
“There’s a bus stop I want to photograph.” This may sound like a parody of an esoteric festival film, but Canadian Christopher Herwig’s photography project is entirely in earnest, and likely you will be won over by his passion for this unusual subject within the first five minutes. Soviet architecture of the 1960s and 70s was by and large utilitarian, regimented, and mass-produced. Yet the bus stops Herwig discovers on his journeys criss-crossing the vast former Soviet Bloc are something else entirely: whimsical, eccentric, flamboyantly artistic, audacious, colourful. They speak of individualism and locality, concepts anathema to the Communist doctrine. Herwig wants to know how this came to pass and tracks down some of the original unsung designers, but above all he wants to capture these exceptional roadside way stations on film before they disappear.
Director
Kristoffer Hegnsvad
Writer
Kristoffer Hegnsvad
Languages
Estonian, Russian, Latvian
Studio
Empty Chairs
Cast
Christopher Herwig
Recommended
6.2
Naqoyqatsi
2002
6.8
Nothing Like a Dame
2018
7.1
A Beautiful Planet
2016
8
My Mom Jayne
2025
8.1
Samsara
2011
7.4
I Am Heath Ledger
2017
5.9
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
2018
6.5
Heart of a Dog
2015
6.9
An Inconvenient Truth
2006
7.6
Finding Vivian Maier
2014
7.5
Kedi
2017
7.9
Koyaanisqatsi
1983
6.9
Who Are You, Charlie Brown?
2021
7.3
WHAM!
2023
7.5
The Irishman: In Conversation
2019
7.8
Being James Bond
2021
6.9
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
2019
6.7
Cameraperson
2016
7.2
Side by Side
2012
6.9
Justin Bieber's Believe
2013
Similar Movies
Dreaming of a Treehouse
2011
Jugaad
2020
7
Elliott Erwitt - Silence Sounds Good
2019
Irina Ionesco - Nocturnes Porte Dorée
2003
One Big Home
2017
5.3
Amancio Williams
2013
Venezia Diorama
2026
7.3
Moriyama-San
2017
7
La sconfitta di Trotsky
1967
Erlangen als historische Stadtanlage
1984
Kaplnka svätej Barbory
1995
The KGB Connections: An Investigation into Soviet Operations in North America
1981
Six Man
0
Asgard
2011
There is the Metro!
1935
1
Ice-Breaker: The '72 Summit Series
2025
7
Oscar Niemeyer, an architect commited to his century
2000
Charles Vandenhove, architecte de l'art
0
8
Under the Weight of a Waking Dream
2025
3
Little Potato
2017