Hand-Written Tickets & Soviet Movie Palaces | Bishkek

Bishkek’s grand cinemas are architectural giants that feel more like palaces than movie theaters. From 80-year-old facades to hand-written tickets, these buildings are a living history of the Soviet era. I take a walk through the streets of the Kyrgyz capital to investigate the massive scale of the city's most famous cinemas from the outside. We look at the historic October Cinema, built in 1957 as the country’s first widescreen theatre, and the imposing Manas Cinema, named after the legendary Kyrgyz hero. I also visit the almost brutalist Russia cinema and the Stalinist Ala-Too. I share the fascinating history of how these buildings were designed as vital tools for Soviet propaganda, following Lenin’s famous belief that cinema was "the most important of all the arts" for educating the masses. We even find a surprising relics of the past: ticket offices where theatre stubs are still filled in by hand. From the strict censorship of the Stalin era to the global reach of classics like Battleship Potemkin, this is a look at the enduring power of cinematic history in the former USSR.