The plot starts at the beginning of the last century, when the first Russian filmmakers Khanzhonkov and Ermolev opened their film factories. Realizing that it was the most important of all arts, the new government requisitioned the factories from the bourgeoisie. Ermolev left for the United States and became a film producer there, which is why almost no one in Russia knowns about him, while Khanzhonkov went on to work for new regime. The former Khanzhonkov's film studio became the first Goskino factory, Ermolev's enterprise – the third factory. In 1924, they united under the name Sovkino and commemorated this occasion with a film with the prophetic title On the Wings Skyward. The path to the name Mosfilm was far, long, and marked with such milestones as the names Sovkino, Soyuzkino, Rosfilm, Soyuzfilm, Moskinokombinat. But since January 4, 1936 – and probably forever – the studio has been bearing the name Mosfilm. The largest film studio in Europe – 36 hectares on the street of its own name – is an entire film town, which is inhabited by people of 200 professions directly or indirectly related to film making. Streets of this town were trod by such classics as Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko, Tarkovsky, Gaidai. In the post-Soviet era, the film life froze here, but now Mosfilm makes movies again.
