History through the cinema as part of the educational process

History is a part of the curriculum in Bachelor degree studies, and at the History Department of MAI, the work of the historical film club "STAR" - "History of Russia and screen culture" is being conducted. On October 30, 2018, the meeting of MAI film society was held. It was dedicated to the history of Ancient Russia, as it is shown in the works of national cinematography.

The artistic director of the film club, Candidate of Historical Sciences, associate professor of MAI History  Department, a member of the Guild of Film Experts and Film Critics Alla Pavlenko spoke to the first- and second-year students of different faculties.

Fragments from the movies "Viking" (2016), "Primordial Russia" (1985) with scenes of hunting, weddings and other rituals of ancient Slavs were shown.

Student's interest was kindled, especially students from Angola, Nepal, Vietnam, Congo, Zimbabwe, Egypt, China and Malaysia, by the presentation from senior lecturer Natalia Yurchenko about how the image of a horse was reflected in Indo-European mythology and how the mythological images of the past are refracted in the modern cinema.  

“I liked the meeting of the film club. Now we are studying the history of the Old Russian state and watched the relevant fragments of films. It is very fascinating to study the history through cinema with teacher’s comments: the information is better remembered when you have a visual image in front of you”, - said Stephen Nyatsungo Tinashe, a first-year student of Bachelor’s degree program in Aircraft Engineering.