The Stalinist Postscript
Sergey Loznitsa’s latest documentary arches over time, calling us to witness the apotheosis of the total art project which Stalinism wished to embody. By modelling the clay of images that were taken at the funeral ceremony of Stalin into a shapely dough, Loznitsa faces us with the ultimate demonstration of the cult of personality, rebuilding a maximalist ritual of worshipping that was as strictly organized as it was outright bizarre. In other words, on the one hand you have the infinite detritus of archives, composed of recordings shot by 197 cameramen who were present on location for those couple of days in 1953, destined to be part of a film that was finally never made; on the other hand, there is an implacable narrative, from head to toe – from the protocolary announcement of the leader’s death, to the laying of the final wreaths of flowers – in which the Eye of History no longer acts as a judge, but rather, watches on from the position of a passerby in the crowd, in a state of intrigue.
Film critic and journalist; writes regularly for Dilema Veche and Scena9. He studied film theory in Grenoble, Paris, Dublin.
