FACING THE JUDGEMENT OF HISTORY

An enemy of the state from the Soviet perspective, the monarchist Vasiliy Shulgin was a member of the Duma as of 1907 and belonged to several conservative groups. Ermler brings this figure together with a nameless historian who accompanies the politician on a stroll through Leningrad, on the trail of his own history, in order to show him his mistakes. Exuding a monstrous fascination in its blend of fiction, documentary, experimentation and propaganda, this little-known masterpiece seems to make itself up as it goes along, bold and free, subversive and sad, a pamphlet for cinema as the art of permanent revolution.