L'ombra di Stalin

This is a powerful film which I'm afraid few people will watch. Even those who watch it, may feel the situations it portrays are exaggerated or completely made up. They are not. The problems caused by Stalin in Ukraine are, if anything, downplayed.

But beyond the historical accuracy are the questions about the behavior of the people and their morality as it is portrayed in the film. Did diplomats and politicians really behave like this? Not only did they behave like this. They continue to behave like this. I've worked in government NGOs overseas and I've seen the insincerity of most diplomats close up. I've also experienced their ability to blind themselves of the truth if the truth endangers their high paid positions.

There are people out there now who know the truth and who are being told to keep quiet. There are people I've known who were undermined when trying to do what was right. So, this movie is telling the truth for them. You may not like what it has to say, but who says the truth has to be pleasant.

Sometimes cinema can bring history alive and little known facts and personalities can be highlighted or rediscovered, and so it is here. Gareth Jones was a diplomat and journalist who wrote about the terrible famine in the Ukraine during the early 1930s which the Soviet's, and many others, we're trying to hide at the time. It's a sober but fascinating insight into a almost forgotten episode, and is very skilfully done with a fine central performance by Edward Norton as Jones and well staged scenes of his tense visits to the USSR and his gradual discovery of the regimes corruption and lies. Tightly scripted and directed, this is one worth discovering.

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.

The Allies had to Eat a Lot of Crow while Looking the Other Way and Knowingly Suppress the Willful Starvation of Millions by Stalin.

A Sociopathic Dictator that was as Evil as Anything Humanity had to Endure.

To Win the Fight Against the Nazis and Japan for World Dominance, it was Decided to Allow Stalin to do What Stalin Did Without Interference.

This is the Story of a Naive but Brave Journalist, Gareth Jones, who Ended-Up Paying the Ultimate Price for being a Truth-Teller.

And His Uncovering First-Hand the Deliberate Starvation of Millions in and around Ukraine in the Soviet Union.

He Tries to Get Someone, Anyone to Believe what He has Seen to get the World to Oppose such Mass Murder.

Politics, Greed, and Self-Preservation were Opposing His Every Effort and the Movie Tells His Story in a Personal and Compelling Montage of Boardrooms, Trains, and Captivity.

The Enormous Human Toll is so Devastating and Horrendous, the Story-Telling can Never Really Capture the Heart-Breaking Suffering of the Population.

But it has to be Attempted Now and Then to Remind the World of the Evil Around Us and to Shed Light on the Darkest Deeds Done Right Before Our Eyes and the Consequences of Doing Nothing.

The Film is Captivating, Consuming, and Frustrating with an All-Too-Real-Feel that Brings the Story Home for Us to See a Relatively Unknown Event and is only so, because We Let it Be Unknown.

Sadly, Almost a Century After it Should Have Been Known.

I knew nothing about Gareth Jones or Duranty before this and thought it an excellent film. James Norton is as good as ever and the rest of the cast are excellent.

Superb filming of a terrible time in the development of communist USSR and the conditions that the peasant class had to endure. A must see if you're interested in history but don't expect any laughs or edge of the seat thrills.