#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. According to the recollections of the first Norilsk residents, among the premiere films was Circus, a Soviet musical comedy staged by director Grigory Aleksandrov based on a play by Ilf, Petrov and Katayev.
This film was shown all winter long, but the Norilsk people didn’t get tired of it: the club hall was full all the time.
But the first club was, of course, far from the cinema. In 1939, a new one was built on Gornaya street – the Trade Unions Club with an auditorium for 400 seats. There, the first stationary film installation from the Igarka film department was put into operation: it ran up to 30 screenings per month.
After the war, Norilsk hosted a thousand film screenings a year. A hall for 270 seats appeared in the House of Engineering and Technical Workers – the famous DITR.
Stationary cinema halls were also launched in Gorstroy: in the district committee of the trade union at 7 Sevastopolskaya street, and in the future theater building at 20 Sevastopolskaya street.
Rodina can be considered the first real cinema, located in a specially designed room. It opened in 1953, and tickets were sold out instantly.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that the first New Year’s toys and carnival costumes were made from improvised materials.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
