The new film directed by Sergei Loznitsa is based on unique archival materials shot in the USSR on March 5-9, 1953. Watch the trailer for the documentary Farewell to Stalin (2019) with a release date in Russia in 2020, the actors are real personalities of the Soviet era.
Rating: IMDb - 7.2.
State Funeral
Lithuania, Netherlands
Genre:documentary, history
Producer:Sergey Loznitsa
World release:September 6, 2019
Release in Russia:March 5, 2020
Cast:I. Stalin, L. Beria, V. Molotov, G. Malenkov and others.
Duration:135 minutes
The mystery of the personality cult is revealed in the grandiose performance of the funeral of Joseph Stalin. The film is more than two hours of archival video recordings where people from all over the USSR gather in city squares to hear the news of the leader's funeral.
Plot
A unique, previously unpublished archive video of March 1953, which shows the funeral of Joseph Stalin in the format of the culmination of the dictator's personality cult. The news of Stalin's death on March 5, 1953 shocked the entire Soviet Union. The funeral ceremony was attended by tens of thousands of mourners. We watch every stage of the funeral performance, described by the newspaper Pravda as the “Great Farewell,” and we get unprecedented access to the dramatic and ridiculous experience of life and death under Stalin's rule. The film is dedicated to the problem of Stalin's personality cult as a form of illusion caused by terror. It provides insight into the nature of the regime and its legacy still haunting the modern world.
Production and shooting
Director and scriptwriter - Sergei Loznitsa ("Blockade", "Event", "Maidan").
“I see this film as a visual exploration of the nature of Stalin's personality cult and an attempt to deconstruct the ritual that formed the basis of the bloody regime. It is inconceivable that today, in Moscow around 2019, 66 years after Stalin's death, thousands of people gathered at his grave on March 5 to lay flowers and mourn his death. I consider it my duty as a director to use the power of documentary images to appeal to the minds of contemporaries and seek the truth ”- S. Loznitsa.
Sergei Loznitsa
Film crew:
- Producers: Maria Shustova ("Event", "In the Fog", "Donbass"), Sergei Loznitsa;
- Editing: Danielius Kokanauskis ("Trial", "Victory Day").
Production: Atoms & Void, Nutprdukce, Studio Uljana Kim.
Actors
Starring:
- Joseph Stalin;
- Lavrenty Beria;
- Vyacheslav Molotov;
- Georgy Malenkov.
Interesting Facts
Did you know that:
- Stalin's death meant the death of an era. Without even realizing it, millions of people who mourned the Leader in March 1953 also had life-changing experiences in their personal history.
The release date of the documentary "Farewell to Stalin" (2019) with famous actors is already known, the release date in the Russian Federation is March 5, 2020.
