Stalin killed him. The show still went on. For a while.
Moscow, January 1948. In the bitter cold, a large crowd attends the State Funeral of the Yiddish actor and director Solomon Mikhoels. An official proclamation mourns the death of "a great People's Artist of the Soviet Union." What people are really mourning is the death of the most popular Jewish theater in the Soviet Union, and the man who kept it alive against all odds for over 20 years. No doubt many suspected the truth: he had just been assassinated by Stalin's secret police.
Direction
Sam Ball crafts epic tragedy in 15 tight minutes.
Production
Rare archival footage of performances Stalin tried to bury.
Director
Sam Ball
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Moscow State Jewish Theater was shuttered in November 1948, just months after Mikhoels' murder, and most company members were executed in 1952.
Mikhoels' 1943 meeting with Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in America—captured in the film—was later used against him as 'evidence' of Zionist conspiracy.
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