Heroic Deed Among the Ice (1928)

"Heroic Deed Among the Ice" ("Podvig vo I'dah" in Russian) is a 1928 Soviet silent documentary film. It is also known as "Exploit on the Ice" and "Ice-Breaker Kras(s)in". This film is the first collaboration between Georgi Vasilyev and Sergei Vasilyev. It details the mission of the ice-breaker Krasin to rescue the crashed crew of Umberto Nobile's arctic airship Italia. The raw material shot without any plan by cameramen who accompanied Krasin was used by Georgi and Sergei Vasilyev to create a coherent and powerful narrative in the tradition of Soviet montage school. Heroic Deed was released in October 1928 and its success helped Georgi and Sergei Vasilyev to realize their ambition to direct. All the editing notes by Vasilyev survive and have been published, but the film itself is partially lost. The actual ice-breaker Krasin survived and is now a (still fully operational) museum ship St Petersburg.