The silent film concert Arsenal goes on tour

The image is from the concert during TIFF 2023. 

The silent film Arsenal, an important film in Ukrainian film history, was screened during the Tromsø International Film Festival this year. With groundbreaking live music, created and played by the metal band ATTAN together with bassist Nikolai Olshansky and drummer Tomas Järmyr, it was a great success. Now the silent film concert will go on tour, starting in Vadsø on February 26th and at the Barents Spetakel festival in Kirkenes, in collaboration with Pikene på Broen, on February 27th.

METAL AND DOUBLE BASS

Live, the metal band ATTAN is spectacular, and both visually and sonically, they leave as little room as possible for the audience to catch their breath. The band describes itself as "the sound of a people sucking the marrow out of their own bones", but bassist Fritz Ragnvald Rimala Pettesen believes you don't need to be a metal fan to come to the silent film concert.

- Based on the response we got in a packed hall at Verdensteatret in Tromsø, this is something to look forward to and an experience that is also suitable for those who otherwise think metal can be too hard, he says.

In addition to him, ATTAN consists of guitarist Bjørn Are Johansen from Vadsø, guitarist Mathis Ståle Mathisen and drummer Aleksander Ralla Vilnes from Alta and vocalist Remi Semshaug Langseth.

For the silent film concert, they have teamed up with artists Tomas Järmyr from Sweden and Nikolai Olshansky, who has left Russia. Nikolai plays double bass and bass guitar, and is one of the best representatives of the new generation of jazz musicians from Severomorsk in the Murmansk region. Tomas is a skilled drummer and was a member of the rock band Motorpsycho from 2017 to 2023.

ARSENAL

The Soviet silent film Arsenal, made by the Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzjenko, takes us to the January Uprising in Kyiv in 1918 and shows the destructive forces of war. In the film, we meet tired and hungry people in a depopulated village and a war hero with ambitions to turn the situation around.

The style of the film is clearly propagandistic with a number of Ukrainian symbols, while at the same time highlighting the conflicts that existed between Ukrainian nationalists and the state power of the Soviet Union. This is something that feels relevant even today in connection with the war between Russia and Ukraine, and makes this a very complicated, but also interesting film to screen to highlight the tensions that have existed between Ukraine and the Kremlin for a long time.

SILENT FILM CONCERTS OVER MANY YEARS

For the last 15 years, Tromsø International Film Festival has brought together musicians from the Barents region, with support from BarentsKult, to re-actualize films from the silent film era.

- Nothing has prevented us from carrying out a production once a year throughout this period. When there was no equipment, we drove 35mm film copies in suitcases across the border, and when it was not possible to travel during the pandemic, we organized digital concerts. We have chosen to make a new production this year as well. Of course, it had to comment on the current situation, and that's how it became hardcore music and a Ukrainian film, says Igor Shaytanov, TIFF producer and project manager.

- The project deals with a difficult topic. We were surprised by the enormous positive response from the audience in Tromsø. We hadn't thought much about tour plans before, but now we see that there is a lot of interest, and we are actively working on tour plans, continues Shaytanov.

After the concert in Vadsø on February 26th and in Kirkenes on February 27th, Arsenal and the artists will revisit Tromsø during the Silent Film Days in April.

Buy tickets for the concert in Vadsø here, and for the concert during Barents Spektakel in Kirkenes here.