Sergei Loznitsa - Official Website (2024)

STATE FUNERAL / 2019

STATE FUNERAL

SYNOPSIS

Unique, mostly unseen before, archive footage from March 1953, presents the funeral of Joseph Stalin as the culmination of the dictator's personality cult. The news of Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, shocked the entire Soviet Union. The burial ceremony was attended by tens of thousands of mourners. We observe every stage of the funeral spectacle, described by Pravda newspaper as "the Great Farewell", and receive an unprecedented access to the dramatic and absurd experience of life and death under Stalin's reign. The film addresses the issue of Stalin's personality cult as a form of terror-induced delusion. It gives an insight into the nature of the regime and its legacy, still haunting the contemporary world.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

original title

ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЕ ПОХОРОНЫ (GOSUDARSTVENNYYE POKHORONY)

english title

STATE FUNERAL

genre

documentary

country

Netherlands, Lithuania

CREW

written & directed

Sergei Loznitsa

sound

Vladimir Golovnitski

editing

Danielius Kokanauskis

archive research

Vladilen Vierny

producer(s)

Sergei Loznitsa, Maria Choustova

co-production

Studio Uljana Kim (Uljana Kim)

production

ATOMS&VOID

with the support of

Current Time TV, CINEMATEK

‘State Funeral’ Review: Sergei Loznitsa’s Monumental Study of Josef Stalin’s FuneralBy Jay Weissberg, 2021-05-28, www.variety.com This expertly constructed rearranging of archival and propaganda footage is the rare film to merit immediate status as a canonical work. ‘State Funeral’ Review: Saying Goodbye to StalinBy A.O. Scott, 2021-05-06, www.nytimes.com Sergei Loznitsa’s new found-footage documentary illuminates Soviet life in the immediate aftermath of the dictator’s death. How Stalin’s Funeral Exposed the Crazed Cult of Soviet Communism), 2021-05-10, www.thedailybeast.com Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin may have imagined the Soviet ruler’s demise in satiric terms, but its ridiculousness has nothing on the breathtaking absurdity and horror of State Funeral. «Государственные похороны»: ĸолыбельная для тиранаОлег Сульĸин, 2021-05-10, www.golosameriki.com В Нью-Йорĸе, в артхаусном ĸиноцентре Film Forum, демонстрируется новый доĸументальный фильм уĸраинсĸого режиссера Сергея Лозницы«Государственные похороны» (State Funeral). ‘It’s impossible to take your eyes off this infinitely dear face’: the startling film about Stalin’s funeralAlex von Tunzelmann, 2021-05-09, www.theguardian.com Crafted from footage locked for years in an archive, Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral focuses on the motivations of the mourners who lived under the brutal regime. Festival de Mar del Plata 2019: crítica de “State Funeral”, de Sergei Loznitsapor Diego Lerer, 2019-11-01, www.micropsiacine.com En su nuevo documental, el realizador ucraniano toma losgigantescos y masivos eventos realizados tras la muerte de JosefStalin para observar de manera sutilmente crítica la situación políticade la Unión Soviética en ese momento. A Hypnotic butContextless Portraitof Stalin’s Death andIts Aftermathby Massha Gesssen, 2019-09-30, www.newyorker.com In March of 1953, Moscow, and the rest of the Soviet Union, fell under aspell. On March 5th, a sombre male voice on the radio, heard onloudspeakers mounted in public spaces throughout the U.S.S.R., announcedthat the great leader Joseph Stalin had died. TIFF Review: "State Funeral"by Daniel Glassman, 2019-10-01, www.povmagazine.com According to a survey done earlier this year by the Russian polling firmLevada, 70% of Russians are of the opinion that Josef Stalinʼs rule was goodfor the country. To those in the West who equate Stalin with the likes ofHitler and Mao as men whose colossal crimes mark them as bloodthirstytyrants and whose names are almost bywords for evil itself, this nostalgia issurprising, to say the least. Film: State Funeral, dir. Sergei Loznitsa, 2019by Katya Kazbek, 2019-10-04, www.supamodu.com An immersive experience of Joseph Stalin’s 1953 funeral proceedings carefully constructed from archival footage that gives a rare glimpse into the psyche of the massively oppressed. State Funeral: Venice Reviewby Jonathan Romney, 2019-09-06, www.screendaily.com In one documentary mode, he films observational pieces such as Maidan, Austerlitz and Victory Day, while in another he creates complex assemblages of archival work mapping the surface appearances and underlying complexities of modern Russian history; notably in The Event and last year’s The Trial. His new film State Funeral is in the latter vein, an epic, implicitly ironic evocation of the elaborate ceremonies that followed the death of Joseph Stalin in March 1953. La mummia del poteredi Giacomo Tagliani, 2019-09-07, www.fatamorganaweb.unical.it Non siamo più abituati all’idea di un evento che non sia sempre anche mediatico. Non lo siamo più da quando ciascuno di noi ha con sé una protesi tecnologica con la quale insieme produce e consuma contenuti mediali in tempo reale. Ma ancora più addietro, è nella fase ruggente della televisione e della presa diretta che il couplage tra l’evento e i media che lo creano, lo definiscono e lo riproducono ha assunto una saldatura pressoché perfetta, rendendo quasi ridondante quel binomio non più pensabile separatamente. Venezia76 – State Funeral, di Sergei Loznitsadi Leonardo Lardieri, 2019-09-06, www.sentieriselvaggi.it 5 marzo 1953, ore 21.50. Dopo alcuni giorni di agonia, muore per una crisi respiratoria, causata da un ictus, Josip Stalin. “Morto Stalin, viva Stalin”. L’Unione Sovietica si ferma per i suoi funerali di Stato. Con filmati d’archivio, in gran parte inediti, Loznitsa mostra l’intera cerimonia della sepoltura, seguita da tutto il Paese, orfano del suo comandante supremo, che l’organo di stampa Pravda descrisse come “Il Grande Addio”. Venezia 76 - State Funeralda Anton Giulio Onofri, 2019-09-05, www.close-up.it La sera del 5 marzo 1953, per un’emorragia cerebrale che tre giorni prima gli aveva paralizzato mezzo corpo, muore inaspettatamente Iosif Vissarionovic Stalin. L’avvenimento produce uno shock fortissimo in tutta l’Unione Sovietica, come la morte improvvisa di un padre. E Stalin era davvero un grande padre, in quel preciso momento storico, amato, quasi venerato e ancora considerato, anche fuori della Russia, colui che aveva sconfitto Hitler influendo in maniera decisiva sull’esito della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. В Венеции наконец похоронили СталинаСтас Тыркин, 2019-09-07, www.kp.ru Фильм продолжительностью 135 минут - уникальная возможность примерить на себя события марта 1953 года, испытать этот опыт, пройти этот неслабый «иммерсивный экспириенс». Знаменитый документалист Лозница смонтировал кадры, снятые в преддверии и во время похорон вождя и учителя двумястами советскими операторами. Кремль построил вокруг кладбище и околдовал людейДмитрий Волчек, 2019-09-06, www.currenttime.tv Почему фильм о событиях почти семидесятилетней давности оказался очень актуален в современной России? И что происходит после смерти диктатора, который собрал в своих руках колоссальную власть? Обо всем этом кинорежиссер Лозница рассказал в интервью Дмитрию Волчеку. Пепел и ДонбассАндрей Плахов, 2019-09-06, www.kommersant.ru Лозница по-новому аранжирует кадры похорон, ставит их в современный контекст, высекает барочные цветовые эффекты из контрастов черно-белого с вкраплениями кумача и алых цветов (кровь прочитывается за кадром). Спи, богатырь, спиАнтон Долин, 2019-09-06, www.meduza.io Название «Государственные похороны» — нарочито нейтральное, будто стертое. Даже английская версия выглядит богаче: «State Funeral» можно перевести как «Похороны государства», и сразу откроется богатство трактовок. Но Сергей Лозница не облегчает жизнь своим зрителям. Венеция-2019: Хроника Дряхлости - От Похорон Сталина До Шедевра Полански И Слабого КонкурсаЕкатерина Барабаш, 2019-09-07, www.kino-teatr.ru А в новом монтажном фильме Сергея Лозницы «Государственные похороны» показано, как в сделку со злом вступила вся страна. Более чем двухчасовая картина подробно рассказывает о том, что происходило в СССР с 5 марта 1953 года кончая моментом, как гроб с телом Сталина внесли в Мавзолей. "Stalin is dead. Long live Stalin!"by Anton Dolin, 2019-10-07, www.meduza.io The Russian-language title Gosudarstvennye pokhorony is deliberately neutral, as though it has been scrubbed clean of political meaning. Even the English translation seems richer: State Funeral can also be back-translated as Pokhorony gosudarstva (The Funeral of the State), which lends itself easily to a wealth of interpretations. State Funeralby Jason Ooi, 2019-10-15, www.thefilmstage.com The death of Joseph Stalin on March 5, 1953 sent political reverberationsaround the world, marking a significant power shift that would inevitablyalter the geopolitical landscape altogether. Dokumentären om Stalins begravning väcker frågor om känslor i diktaturerJohannes Hagman, 2019-10-07, www.flm.nu När man ser Sergej Loznitsas senaste film, State funeral, aktualiseras frågan om genre. Filmen om Stalins begravning – som består helt av samtida dokumentation i såväl färg som svartvitt – följer nämligen knappast förväntningarna på ett nutida dokumentärt eftermäle av en av världshistoriens mest avskydda diktatorer. Faktum är att den inte följer de flestas förväntningar på vad en dokumentärfilm är överhuvudtaget. Make It Real: Do You Hear What I Hear?by Eric Hynes, 2019-11-28, www.filmcomment.com In Sergei Loznitsaʼs State Funeral, Soviet citizens congregate throughout the country in March 1953 to honor the passing of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. Entirely archival, the footage for the film derives from a movie called The Great Farewell, which draws on dozens of filmmakers who captured the four days of public mourning that followed Stalinʼs death. Totalitarian regimesMelita Zajc, 2019-11-15, www.moderntimes.review The film has no voice-over, no instructions whatsoever about how to read it. It offers spectacularly beautiful images of people in motion. They are people of all ages and races, professions and social ranks, huge masses of people, moving harmoniously, at the same pace, in the same direction. Like a calm flow. Quietly. No voice is heard apart from the sounds of shoes creaking as they touch the ground, monotonous tramping, making the silence even more tangible. These human bodies and faces have no name, apart from those who are invited to speak. Сталин скоро умретЮлия Меламед, 2019-11-19, www.gazeta.ru Это больше похоже на речь шамана, чем на речь простого коммуниста. Сейчас бы сказали, вы чего там, в 1953-м, такое забористое курили? Однако это речь простого коммуниста. Вполне серьезно товарищ с трибуны такое несет. Экстатическое. С завывающими интонациями. Государственные похороны: фильм-мечта (комментарий)Артемий Троицкий, 2019-11-18, www.lrt.lt С первой до последней минуты картины Сталин лежит в гробу, и это само по себе радует.

Sergei Loznitsa - Official Website (2024)

STATE FUNERAL / 2019

STATE FUNERAL

SYNOPSIS

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

CREW

TRAILER

References