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Stalin, Funeral of a God

Available as: Online
Summary: Based on the cinematography of Soviet (Georgian) Filmmaker Mikheil Chiaureli, this film by Academy-award winning Georgian filmmaker Nino Kirtadze follows the funeral of Soviet dictator Joseph Stali...

Based on the cinematography of Soviet (Georgian) Filmmaker Mikheil Chiaureli, this film by Academy-award winning Georgian filmmaker Nino Kirtadze follows the funeral of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Chiaureli was one of Stalin's favorite filmmakers for his propaganda films and emerged as one of the most important Soviet directors and cinematographers in the 1940s. The footage shot by Chiaureli was intended by the Soviet authorities to be the definitive account of history's greatest loss. Ranging widely across the Soviet Union and points beyond - from Warsaw to Moscow to Beijing and Korean War battlefronts, and culminating in the dictator's colossal Red Square funeral - this video captures the pomp and intrigue-packed Soviet world of High Stalinism at its zenith. Long buried in Soviet-era archives, and unearthed by Kirtadze and her team, the footage jarringly returns us to a time when the slogan "Stalin is always with us" radiated hope and confidence in a bright Soviet future and offers insights into Soviet propaganda films of that era. It uses the official Russian State Radio Broadcast as the narrative track and features English narrative and voice-over.