State Funeral (ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЕ ПОХОРОНЫ). 2019. Netherlands/Lithuania. Written and directed by Sergei Loznitsa. DCP courtesy MUBI. In Russian; English subtitles. 135 min.
The shock of the nation was palpable on March 5, 1953, as though a god had forsaken his people: Comrade Stalin is dead! Long live Comrade Stalin! Sergei Loznitsa provides a riveting forensic study of Josef Stalin’s cult of personality, stitching together largely unseen archival images of his funeral and the gatherings of thousands of mourners across the Soviet Union, from the streets of Leningrad to the steppes of Eurasia. Described in Pravda, the Soviet newspaper, as “the Great Farewell,” the ceremony carried on for days, with loudspeakers blaring rhapsodic tributes and pledges to redouble efforts to carry out the great leader’s Five-Year Plans, with factories ceremoniously shut down and mountains of flowers piling up, with leaders of the Eastern Bloc flying in to pay their respects, and with grim-faced crowds waiting patiently to gaze upon his body lying in state. As we see countless mourners shedding genuine tears or performing their grief, Loznitsa brings the film—and the hero worship—to a sudden and damning halt.