The Red Empire

Moscow, March 5th 1953. Stalin is dead. One day later, he is lying in state in an open coffin. Over one and a half million people move through the streets of Moscow. A last farewell for the man they worship like a god. Eyes full of tears. For three days they mourn in deep grief the loss of their "Leader" - their "Father", the "Greatest Man of our Time". During five minutes of silence throughout the East Bloc time seems to stop, as the coffin is laid to rest in the Mausoleum at the Red Square. They can't believe that he has left them. How can we go on without Stalin? What will become of us? The sudden death of Stalin creates a gigantic vacuum. The documentary takes a in-depth look at the story of a dramatic historical impact in the middle of the 20th Century. It tells about the tremor, the fear and the hope of the people. The contrariness appears as much as the bizarre and the absurd. 1953 strongly changed the history of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.

The news that the Soviet Union had succeeded in launching an artificial moon for the first time in history on October 4, 1957 hit like a bombshell. Sputnik1 is the talk of the town. A metal ball weighing 83 kg with a diameter of 58 cm, hurtling around the globe at cosmic speed.

What happened in 1953 in Stalin’s secret dacha in Kuntsevo? The last five days of the dictator. The film presents narratives about the life and death of the scrupulous power seeker Stalin. A life full of cruelties and red glamour which ended 70 years ago in his secret dacha in Kuntsevo. The almighty suddenly powerless.