200. State Funeral; movie review

 

STATE FUNERAL

Cert PG

135 mins

BBFC advice: Contains bereavement theme, images of a real dead body, references to violence

Hold on a minute. Weren't the deaths of 21 million people in the Soviet Union attributed directly to the tyrannical policies of Josef Stalin?

If so, how come there was such an outpouring of grief across every state in the huge Communist republic when he keeled over?

Sergey Loznitsa's State Funeral leaves this question hanging in the air as it presents archive footage of Stalin's funeral in 1953.

The latter was a heavily choreographed affair with ceremonies held throughout the lands which are, of course, now split from Russia and have their own governments.

Back then, the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia were under Soviet rule as were Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.

Yep, the USSR was a very big entity and Stalin was one of the most powerful men on earth.

It cannot be too surprising, therefore, that he was treated literally as a God by great swathes of the population.

Consequently, in State Funeral many many people are seen weeping and given sombre remembrance to their leader.

For students of 20th-century history, this is a fascinating film.

I took particular note that the foreign dignitaries invited to the funeral only included communists and socialists.

For example, the Communist Party of Great Britain which would have been relatively small was represented but not the government.

I was also entranced by the speeches from Georgy Malenkov, who was soon usurped by Nikita Khrushchev as Soviet Premier, and Lavrentiy Beria, the Interior Minister, who was executed by the end of the year in which the film was made.

Captions are kept to a minimum so this is more a historical record which will interest those who have a bit of prior knowledge of the subject rather than helping those who don't.

Fortunately, I fell into the former category and was enthralled.

Reasons to watch: Historical importance

Reasons to avoid: Drags on quite a bit

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None 

Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? Stalin was born Ioseb (Joseph) Besarionis dze Jughashvili. But, like other Russian revolutionaries, including Vladimir Lenin, he later adopted the alias by which he is now best known.

The final word. Sergei Loznitsa" "I didn’t grow up in Soviet Russia but in Ukraine. At the time both were part of the Soviet Union. The reason why I think it is important to study this experience is because the criminal and barbaric regime that the Soviet Union was, is still very much alive. That is because its history hasn’t been sufficiently studied and understood.  For example, even today, 75 years after the Second World War, the Russian people still know very little truth about it. They are still fed by propaganda and lies." The Hindu

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