This is a film about
Stalin, a monster who became myth. It is a film about the man,
who was trained to be a Russian Orthodox priest and like no other
developed the reigious potenial of communism. It is a journey
from Stalin`s childhood to the children of today, where in the
ruins of the former Soviet Union, Stalin takes pride of place
next to Christ, as a source of hope.
The
film stars:
Stalin’s
Grandson, Jewgeny Dzugashvili, never got to meet the man he
has devoted his life to honouring. Today he leads the party
of the “Ideological heirs of Stalin” in Stalin’s
homeland of Georgia.
Boris Yefimov, was
both Victim and fan. He lost his Brother to a Stalinist purge,
but was spared his own life by the dictator whom he loyally
served as one of Pravda’s top cartoonists.
Stephan Podlubny,
was a printer at Pravda, the party newspaper. Kept one of the
few diaries to have survived the Stalin years. In the last interview
before his death, Stephan expalins how turned from a glowing
fan of the famine produced by Stalin’s collectivisation
in Ukraine, to landing in a Gulag himself.
“Stalin’s
children” is how the top Soviet “Soz” artists,
Alexander Melamed and Vitaly Komar describe themselves. They
analyse how Stalin had himself portrayed as Messiah, in “Socialist
realist” paintings and films that they mercilessly parody
in their own work.
Grisa Oniani,
is the head of the Stalin Historical Society in Georgia. His
home videos show his fabvourite hobby, the re-excavation and
erection of Stalin statues, that where buried during the anti-Stalinist
purges of the 50’s. The children who read the Stalin poem’s
of the old days at the inauguration ceremonies say “I hope
that Stalin will come back, or someone like him”.
Vladimir Putin
a little later been elected president of Russia.
The film was
joint winner of the Best documentary award at the 36th International
Academia Film festival in Olomouc in the Czech republic in 2001.
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