State Funeral (2019 film) explained

State Funeral
Director:	Sergei Loznitsa
Producer:	Sergei Loznitsa Maria Choustova
Editing:	Danielius Kokanauskis
Studio:	Atoms & Void Studio Uljana Kim Nutprdukce Current Time TV
Distributor:	Cinema Prestige
Runtime:	135 minutes
Country:	Netherlands Lithuania
Language:	Russian
Gross:	$48,003^[1]

State Funeral (Russian: Государственные похороны|translit=Gosudarstvennye pohorony) is a 2019 internationally co-produced documentary film by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa. It examines the ceremony and aftermath of Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1929 to his death in 1953.

Individuals shown in archive footage

• Joseph Stalin
• Lavrentiy Beria
• Nikita Khrushchev
• Georgy Malenkov
• Vyacheslav Molotov
• Nikolai Bulganin
• Dolores Ibárruri
• Enlai Zhou
• Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal
• Valko Chervenkov
• Walter Ulbricht

Release

State Funeral premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on 6 September 2019, and the Toronto International Film Festival a week later on the 13th. It saw theatrical exhibition in Lithuania starting on 22 November 2019, and continued through film festivals and other territories before a limited release in the United States on 7 May 2021, before a streaming release on MUBI two weeks later, available also in Australia, Canada, Ireland, India, Latin America, New Zealand, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 7.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "If State Funeral risks repetitiveness in its patient approach, the glimpse of history it offers remains a fascinating -- and frightening -- look at life under a totalitarian regime."^[2] Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[3]

Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival	Depth of Field Competition	Sergei Loznitsa		^[4]
	Depth of Field Competition - Honorable Mention
IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival	Silvestre Award (Best Feature Film)			^[5]
National Lithuania Film Awards	Best Co-Production Film	Sergei Loznitsa Atoms & Void		^[6]
	Audience Award
	Best Film Editing	Danielius Kokanauskis Atoms & Void
	Best Sound Mixing	Vladimir Golovnitskiy Atoms & Void
Russian Guild of Film Critics	White Elephant (Best Documentary)	Sergei Loznitsa		^[7]
31st Stockholm International Film Festival	Bronze Horse			^[8]
Wiesbaden goEast	Best Documentary			^[9]

Notes and References

1. State Funeral (2019) . 10203842 . 6 January 2023.
2. Web site: State Funeral (2021) . . 6 January 2023.
3. Web site: State Funeral (2021) Reviews . . 6 January 2023.
4. Web site: DocAviv Film Festival (2020) . 2023-01-06 . IMDb.
5. Web site: IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival (2020) . 2023-01-06 . IMDb.
6. Web site: National Lithuania Film Awards (2021) . 2023-01-06 . IMDb.
7. Web site: Russian Guild of Film Critics (2021) . 2023-01-06 . IMDb.
8. Web site: Stockholm International Film Festival (2020) . 2023-01-06 . IMDb.
9. Web site: Wiesbaden goEast (2020) . 2023-01-06 . IMDb.