 Both were made with locally developed sound-on-film systems, two of the two hundred or so movie sound systems then available somewhere in the world.In June 1931, the Nikolai Ekk drama "Putevka v zhizn" ("The Road to Life" or "A Start in Life"), premiered as the Soviet Union's first true talking picture.Throughout much of Europe, conversion of exhibition venues lagged well behind production capacity, requiring talkies to be produced in parallel silent versions or simply shown without sound in many places.