State Funeral

Name: State Funeral
Genre: History, Documentary
Released: May 7, 2021
Duration: 135 min
Rating: 81
Cast: Dolores Ibárruri, Georgi Malenkov, Joseph Stalin, Lavrenti Beria, Nikita Khrushchev

2021

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Universal acclaim based on 10 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

MUBI | Release Date (Streaming): May 7, 2021 | Not Rated

Starring: Dolores Ibárruri, Georgi Malenkov, Joseph Stalin, Lavrenti Beria, Nikita Khrushchev, Valko Chervenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Yumyaagiin Tsedenbal, Zhou Enlai

Summary: Moscow, March 1953: in the days following the death of Joseph Stalin, countless citizens flooded the Red Square to mourn their leader’s loss and witness his burial. Though the procession was captured in detail by hundreds of cameramen, their footage has remained largely unseen until now.

Director: Sergei Loznitsa

Genre(s): History, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 135 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Jay Weissberg

Jun 2, 2021

Both as film and as history, State Funeral stands as a canonical work. Read full review

Robert Abele

May 27, 2021

Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s clinical and fascinating 135-minute assembly of this priceless archive is a categorically weird, thrillingly immersive distillation of four days of official, cultish pomp and mourning for one of the 20th century’s biggest monsters. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Sheila O'Malley

May 7, 2021

A film like State Funeral is a warning. History has lessons for us about what does, and does not, work, in politics, in leadership, in culture itself. We would do well to listen. We would do well to watch. Read full review

A.O. Scott

May 6, 2021

Composed entirely of footage shot at the time in various parts of the Soviet Union, the film is a haunting amalgam of official pomp and everyday experience, the double image of a totalitarian government and the people in whose name it ruled. Read full review

Tara Brady

May 21, 2021

A fascinating and invaluable document for all of its considerable run time, State Funeral is an occasion worthy of the title. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

May 20, 2021

The faces are the most intriguing thing. Loznitsa gives us a montage of inscrutability and repressed anxiety. Read full review

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

May 27, 2021

With a running time of 135 minutes, it eventually becomes exhausting—but that is partly the point of a film about a population going through the motions, of a mass event with a hole where the middle should be. Read full review

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bertobellamy

May 26, 2021

Sergei Loznitsa presents us with the sorrow of a nation through a collection of solemn and striking images.

But are the tears of the people a sign of relief or true sadness? The text at the end of the movie may have the answer. 'State Funeral' is a testament to the power of a tyrant evenSergei Loznitsa presents us with the sorrow of a nation through a collection of solemn and striking images.

But are the tears of the people a sign of relief or true sadness? The text at the end of the movie may have the answer.

'State Funeral' is a testament to the power of a tyrant even beyond death. The speeches shot during the funeral build an all-powerful and almost godly image of Stalin. Juxtaposed with the images of the people stoically listening — almost everyone with the same expression —, the scenes transmit a sensation of hopelessness. Will they ever be free? And maybe not from an economical-political system, but power-lust leaders.

If you're into slow-burning historical films, this is for you.… Expand

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