State Funeral

“State Funeral is both awesome and stupefying, conjuring the spectacle of a dead pharaoh laid to rest in a celluloid pyramid of his own design.” Jim Hoberman, Art Forum

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 spectacular footage has remained largely unseen until now. Sergei Loznitsa (In the Fog) has masterfully pieced together a cinematic mausoleum to the megalomania of the Stalin era.

From 21 May