''Stalin's Funeral'' (russian: Похороны Сталина, Pokhorony Stalina) is a 1990

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

drama film written and directed by the famous poet,

Yevgeni Yevtushenko Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko ( rus, links=no, 1=Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, ...

. The film stars the British actress,

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two ...

Plot

1953, USSR. Moscow bids farewell to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

. In the funeral crowd, Zhenya gets acquainted with Eli. Over the long hours spent in the funeral procession, they had time to learn a lot about each other, but Elya absurdly dies. So Zhenya begins another, adult, life.

Cast

as English journalist *Denis Konstantinov as Zhenya * Marina Kalinichenko as Elya *

Aleksey Batalov Aleksey Vladimirovich Batalov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Влади́мирович Бата́лов; 20 November 1928 – 15 June 2017) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, film director, screenwriter and pedagogue acclaimed f ...

as Zhenya's father *

Georgi Yumatov Georgi Aleksandrovich Yumatov ( rus, Гeopгий Алeксандpoвич Юматов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj jʊˈmatəf; 11 March 1926 – 6 October 1997) was a Soviet and Russian film actor. He appeared in 72 films between 1946 and 1994. He ...

as Stalin's guard *

as Sculptor *Yevgeni Platokhin as Bald *

Savva Kulish Savva Yakovlevich Kulish (russian: Са́вва Я́ковлевич Кули́ш; 17 October 1936 – 9 June 2001) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scen ...

as Frenchman *

Vsevolod Larionov Vsevolod Dmitriyevich Larionov (russian: Всеволод Дмитриевич Ларионов; September 11, 1928 in Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union – October 8, 2000 Maya Bulgakova Maya Grigoryevna Bulgakova (russian: Ма́йя Григо́рьевна Булга́кова; 19 May 19327 October 1994) was a Soviet and Russian actress. She was one of the People's Artist of the RSFSR (1976). Biography Bulgakova was born on 1 ...

as Stalin's wife * Svetlana Kharitonova as Zhenya's aunt * Mikhail Zhigalov as working *

Valentin Nikulin Valentin Yuryevich Nikulin (russian: Валенти́н Ю́рьевич Нику́лин; 7 July 1932, Moscow — 6 August 2005, Moscow) was a Soviet, Russian and Israeli theater and film actor. Nikulin was born in the family of the playwright ...

as neighbor * Galina Stakhanova as graveyard worker * Vladimir Ilyin as man in a pub *

Sergey Bezrukov Sergey Vitalyevich Bezrukov (russian: link=no, Серге́й Вита́льевич Безру́ков, born 18 October 1973) is a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor, singer, People's Artist of Russia, the laureate of the State Prize of t ...

(episode)

Production

Yevtushenko's was more critical of

's crimes by the time of production and he also sought to emphasise his generation's rejection of

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the the ...

; "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

External links

* 1990 films Soviet drama films 1990s Russian-language films 1990 drama films Films set in Russia Films shot in Russia Fiction set in 1953 Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era {{1990s-drama-film-stub