
WHOSE VOICE IS THIS? explores the soundscapes of the collection of Central Asian films in the Arsenal archive. By examining dubbed voices, background effects, and original soundtracks, the work traces Soviet ideology’s influence on films from the 1960s to the 1990s, capturing its gradual erosion and the impact of Perestroika.
Shifting perspectives from the visual to the aural, this film is a result of research into the Central Asian holdings of Arsenal’s archive. It explores the evolution of sound, speech, and music in local cinema from the 1960s to the 1990s. By listening to characters’ concerns through dubbed voices in addition to soundscapes and soundtracks, we can trace the impact of Soviet ideology, its gradual weakening, and the rise of Perestroika’s freedom. Although the archive, with 45 films from Central Asia, cannot represent all of the region’s political and social shifts, it does offer a valuable basis for analyzing how evolving sound reflects broader transformations over three decades. (Arsenal Berlin)