Svaneti, 1930

Released the following year (though virtually unseen in the U.S. until this Kino on Video release), Salt for Svanetia (original title Jim Shvante) is an ethnographic treasure that ducuments with visual bravado the harsh conditions of life in the isolated mountain village of Ushkul. Often compared to Buñuel's Land Without Bread, Salt begins as a starkly rendered homage to the resourcefulness and determination of the Svan. But as the focus shifts to the tribe's barbaric religious customs (more haunting and otherworldly than any surrealist could have envisioned), Mikhial Kalatozov's film transforms itself into a work of remarkably powerful Communist propaganda, holding up these grotesque, near-pagan ceremonies (which many Svanetians later denied the authenticity of) as an example of religion's corruptive influence.

http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=266