| Stalin's Funeral | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Yevgeni Yevtushenko |
| Written by | Yevgeni Yevtushenko |
| Starring | Vanessa Redgrave Aleksey Batalov Georgi Yumatov Yevgeni Yevtushenko |
| Narrated by | Vsevolod Larionov |
| Cinematography | Anatoli Ivanov |
| Edited by | Eleonora Praksina |
| Music by | Charlie Chaplin G. Maya Igor Nazaruk |
| Release date |
|
| Running time | 109 minutes |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
Stalin's Funeral (Russian: Похороны Сталина, romanized: Pokhorony Stalina) is a 1990 Soviet drama film written and directed by Yevgeni Yevtushenko. The film stars British actress Vanessa Redgrave.
Plot
1953, USSR. Moscow bids farewell to Joseph Stalin. In the funeral crowd, Zhenya gets acquainted with Elya. Over the long hours spent in the funeral procession, they become connected to each other until Elya suddenly dies. Afterwards, Zhenya must begin another, adult, life.
Cast
- Vanessa Redgrave as English journalist
- Denis Konstantinov as Zhenya
- Marina Kalinichenko as Elya
- Aleksey Batalov as Zhenya's father
- Georgi Yumatov as Stalin's guard
- Yevgeni Yevtushenko as Sculptor
- Yevgeni Platokhin as Bald
- Savva Kulish as Frenchman
- Vsevolod Larionov as Narrator (voice)
- Albert Toddle as American
- Maya Bulgakova as Stalin's wife
- Svetlana Kharitonova as Zhenya's aunt
- Mikhail Zhigalov as working
- Valentin Nikulin as neighbor
- Galina Stakhanova as graveyard worker
- Vladimir Ilyin as man in a pub
- Sergey Bezrukov (episode)
Production
Yevtushenko's was more critical of Joseph Stalin's crimes by the time of production and he also sought to emphasise his generation's rejection of Stalinism; "If one is to speak about Stalinism, then we are still digging down to the roots of the poisonous tree of totalitarianism, of which Stalin was the gardener. But this film is not about the roots and not about the gardener but rather about the green shoots sprouting in the evil shade of that tree and yet straining toward the light - about our generation."
References
- M. Lyman, Stanford (2001). Roads to dystopia: sociological essays on the postmodern condition. University of Arkansas Press.
- L. Ryan, Karen (2009). Stalin in Russian satire, 1917-1991. University of Wisconsin Press.
External links
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