The Gift to Stalin

Audience Reviews

View All (3) audience reviews

Audience Member The cast was wonderful, especially Dalen Shintemirov (Sashka) and Ekaterina Rednikova (Vera). The story centers around a young Jewish boy whose grandfather dies while he they are travelling on a deportation train. During a stop, the boy is smuggled out among the bodies, including his grandfather and is taken in by a small Kazaklh village that include other exiled people. His new family includes the Muslim railroad worker, Kasym, that helps smuggle him and becomes his surrogate grandfather; Vera, the Rusian Christian who cleans him and and mothers him; Ezhik, the Polish doctor that loves Vera and is pained to have to witness the regular rapes she suffers from the authorities; and a gang of orphaned children who hold equal contempt for the Soviet authorites. This is one of those extremely toucchingl films. Throughout there are amazingly sweet and tender moments. But the darkness of the Stalin era is ever present. Just when you think things are gonna be okay, a bomb drops (literally!) The film was originally released in 2008 abroad but was just made its US debut in New York a couple of weeks ago. It is making the rounds at Jewish film fests though I actually saw it at a Kazakh film festival, as Kazakhstan celebrates 20 years of independence during 2011. Introduing the film was producer Steven Charles Jaffe (Ghost, Star Trek VI, Strange Days) who is currently Kazakhstanâ(TM)s Honorary Consul in Los Angeles. He provided a nice summary of the history of the kazakh film industry beginning with the Stalin's decision to send filmmaker Eisenstain to Almaty, Kazakhstan's former capital in order to product the industry from the Germans to the recent recognitios of the films Mongol, Nomad and Strayed among the Hollywood award scene over the past few years. As the Ambassador stated tonight, Borat may have initially turned our attention to Kazakhstan, but you should take advantage of the opportunity to get the real story from some of their amazing filmmakers. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member One of best movies in next few years Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Simplicity is a word some may use with a film like this. Boring, or not much action, would be others. There is in fact (in my thoughts) a great deal going on here, but one needs to look a bit below the surface to see it. A Jewish boy saved by a muslim in the time of Stalin for one. How little rights minorities had under the Stalin regime for another. Or how about womens rights (ie rape), for another? None of these or any of the other ideas are thrown in your face or ernestly put to film. Instead you are asked to follow the lives of a village of people and how their heritages led to tragedy (in different ways) for everyone. Beautifully shot (but then the landscape does not seem to allow a bad shot), some okay performances (excusing the fact that most of them seem to be non-actors, but I did enjoy the womens portrayal a great deal), this is a small, quiet film. If one likes movies in the vain of Osama or A Time for Drunken Horses (although I did think they were a bit better), then one will probably like this. If not, then probably this would not be your cup of tea. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Gift to Stalin

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW