L'ombre de Staline

It felt a bit like 'Spotlight' transported back into the 1930s USSR. It sees journalist Gareth Jones traveling to Ukraine, and discovering the horrors of Stalin's man-made famine. This is the first film I've seen depicting this particular atrocity, despite learning about it (and the Holocaust) in school.

The film certainly shifted intensity once Gareth finds a way to reach Ukraine and slowly discovers the conditions firsthand. Numerous scenes will be etched in my memory - fruit on a train, a crying baby, singing children, "Kolya" and a footchase through snow-covered forest. It was intense. Some viewers will probably start feeling some of the hunger themselves.

James Norton delivered a really strong performance as Gareth Jones. Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard were great in supporting roles too. Peter Sarsgaard seems to be seriously typecast as the sleazeball villain in everything these days.

The film follows the story of Gareth Jones as much as it does the famine itself, interceded with appearances of George Orwell. It's the first film I've seen by director Agnieszka Holland and I'm impressed! Will keep a lookout for her future work. Disappointing "Mr Jones" has somehow slipped under the radar for many. Definitely recommend this to those after a powerful, though-provoking film depicting real-life events.

This story is very engaging. The scenes of famine do etch onto the viewers' brains. I feel very sad for the fate of a righteous whistleblower.

All the terror, horror and atrocities of the war and its effects on Ukraine, the Holodomor (Famine of Terror or the Great Famine), including empty villages, starving people, cannibalism and the forced harvest of grain, a beautiful but belated homage to the Lord Gareth Jones (journalist), very sad, appropriate for the current war Russia x Ukraine, a real story, Portraits of War, told simply and efficiently, as he wanted and reports at the beginning of the film...

... innocent comrades, as a result of tyrannical, incompetent and blinkered beliefs, in a system that still exists today bizarrely in some parts of the world. The famine of 1930s Russia and the man who bravely revealed those secrets presented in a down to earth and informative way with minimal poetic licence.

I'm very glad I stuck this one out.

It is a little slow at the beginning, but the moral clarity of this film really stands out. This is a true story that needs to be heard. It's a story of an undercover freelance journalist who was a great hero, though many people don't know his name. It's a story of how the New York Times and the other intellectual elites in the 1930s defended one of the most evil regimes in history. It's a story of the naivety of so many well-meaning people. It's a story of the unspeakable evil of communism. These are stories you won't usually hear from Hollywood, but someone had the balls to make this.

The only negatives of this film are some obvious lacking in production value at times. But this is made up by surprisingly terrific acting and some extraordinarily effective scenes portraying the great evils of communism.