REVIEWS

Stalin’s funeral is recontextualised as an absurd affront to human suffering

Certificate: PG Director: Sergei Loznitsa Cast: Joseph Stalin, Lavrenti Beria, Nikita Khrushchev Released: Out now

Envisioned as a propaganda feature, 40 hours-worth of black-and-white and colour footage was captured by Soviet cameramen across the USSR, along with audio recordings of wireless broadcasts and hagiographic eulogies running to 24 hours. An army of cinematographers photographed crowds as they gathered to hear radio addresses announcing Joseph Stalin’s death, in early March 1953, as well as the days preceding the main event, held in Red Square, where thousands upon thousands of party members and the public paid their respects to the dictator, who was lying in state. The proposed film was first put on hold, and then mothballed, after a power struggle emerged among Stalin’s cronies, followed by Uncle Joe’s regime being officially denounced by Nikita Khrushchev.

Packed away in the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive for over 60 years, a lot of is new to the world, certainly new to a general