In the film Circus, directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, it begins with a white woman in the United States being chased because she has a bi-racial child. She flees to Soviet Union, where she begins her job as a circus performer. Eventually the people find out she has a bi-racial child, but instead of trying to exile or imprison her, she is welcomed and told that her child would be loved by all.
This film was made as propaganda to get people, most likely black people to immigrate to the Soviet Union. I examined a different issue to that of race. I found it interesting, because she is a single mother, that she does not face any extra hardship. In the United States, it was not widely socially acceptable to be a single mother until the early 1990’s, and some could say that is pushing it. Is this because the Soviet Union was a more pro feminist country, or just because this movie was mainly propaganda for those living outside the Soviet Union?
I think the Soviet Union was pushing the narrative that the were the opposite of Western countries, especially the US. Part of that is prioritizing representation of the underprivlidged classes within the US, specifically biracial and single mothers in this instance. I think this movie was mainly a propaganda move, however the USSR was distinctly more pro-feminist than the US as they allowed women to be in the work force, have voting rights, and having family law that favored both parties.