Viimeinen Bolsevikki

The Last Bolshevik is a tribute by Chris Marker, a key pioneer of post-war modern documentary, to his older colleague and friend Alexander Medvedkin. A group of filmmakers took the train across the Soviet Union in the early 30s, and on this trip, Medvedkin made short educational films, satires of social injustices. We see hilarious samples of them. Progressive working-class films in France were modelled after these documentaries in the late 60s and the early 70s.

Marker’s essayistic film of letters and collages is a political account of Medvedkin, who risked his life with his documentaries; a warm, elegiac and critical portrait of a symbol of Soviet history. He is accompanied by many others, such as Eisenstein, Vertov and Isaac Babel. But one Joseph Stalin, whose funeral Medvedkin shot in 1953, threatens to take centre stage.

Markku Varjola | Translation by Jaana Wiik

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