A grandiose, terrifying and grotesque spectacle – unique archival footage from 1953 shows the funeral of Joseph Stalin.

It is unthinkable that 66 years after the tyrant’s death, thousands of mourning people still gather at his tomb on March 5th to lay flowers. ‘I believe it’s my duty to employ the power of the documentary image to appeal to the minds of my contemporaries, and to seek truth,’ says the director. He sees this film as a visual study of the nature of Stalin’s personality cult, which formed the foundation of the bloody regime, and an attempt to deconstruct the ritual. Loznitsa has directed 20 internationally acclaimed documentary films and four feature films, all of which premiered in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival.

Curator's point of view: Probably the most ambitious documentary blockbuster – the epic story of the 21st century, shot fully in the middle of the 20th century.

In the screening: Conversation after the screening