Stalin’s Disciples

Director - Nadav Levitan
 
1988, Hebrew
Israel

Cast: Ezra Dagan, Smadar Daviv, Shmuel Shilo

Stalin’s Disciples was a phrase used to describe a generation of people living on Israeli kibbutzes in the 1950’s who saw the Soviet Union as the savior of humanity. Their popular slogan was: “Mother Russia, Father Stalin”. The three main characters in the film wear bushy mustaches like Stalin and fervently struggle to maintain their faith despite the grim reality of the Prague Trials, the death of Stalin and Kruschev’s denunciation of his predecessor’s practices. The collapse of blind faith in the Party line in the face of the temptations presented by German reparations leads to a series of comic situations revealing human weaknesses, the main theme of this film. 


Script: Nadav Levitan
DOP: Gadi Dantzig