Sergey LOZNITSA
Сергей ЛОЗНИЦА
Sergueï LOZNITSA
Netherlands / Lithuania, 2019, 135mn 
documentary
Gosudarstvennyje Pokhorony
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Государственные Похороны

 

 State Funeral

 Funérailles nationales

 
Directed by : Sergey LOZNITSA (Сергей ЛОЗНИЦА)
Writing credits : Sergey LOZNITSA (Сергей ЛОЗНИЦА)
Sound : Vladimir GOLOVNITSKY (Владимир ГОЛОВНИЦКИЙ)
Editing : Danielius KOKANAUSKIS (Даниелиус КОКАНАУСКИС)
Companies : ATOMS & VOID (The Netherlands) in co-production with Studio Uljana Kim (Lithuania)
 
Sites : Allociné, IMDb

Awards :
Best non-fiction ART film National Documentary Awards : Laurel, Moscow (Russia), 2019

Plot 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.
https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2019/
 

commentaries
Back in the USSR : les documentaires d’archives de Sergei Loznitsa, Carlos SOLANO, revue24images.com, 2021
« State Funeral », sur Arte.tv : Staline est mort, le spectacle peut commencer, Alain CONSTANT, Le Monde, 2020
Hommage ou critique, un documentaire sur Staline divise en Russie, Daniel VALLOT, RFI, 2020
Interview de Sergueï Loznitsa : « Un bref instant et l’on comprend tout », Sergey LOZNITSA, Juliana BARAZER, Interview, regard-est.com, 2020
Sergei Loznitsa: State Funeral (2019), Birgit BEUMERS, Kinokultura, 2020
Sergueï Loznitsa, Sergey LOZNITSA, Mathieu LERICQ, Interview, debordements.fr, 2020
Sergueï Loznitsa revisite les funérailles de Staline, François EKCHAJZER, Telerama, 2020
La Presse a vu… State Funeral de Sergueï Loznitsa, André DUCHESNE, lapresse.ca, 2019
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Stalin in contemporary Russian cinema, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Hong-Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong (China), 2021
- Intégrale Sergueï Loznitsa au Centre Pompidou et carte blanche au réalisateur, Paris (France), 2020
- FIPADOC, Biarritz (France), 2020
- Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2020
- Venice International Film Festival, Venice (Italy), 2019
- Festival international du film de Marrakech : FIFM, Marrakech (Morocco), 2019
- National Documentary Awards : Laurel, Moscow (Russia), 2019
- International Art Documentary Film Festival "Artdocfest", Moscow (Russia), 2019

Images