Me and Stalin

On the death of Stalin

The Georgian dancer, choreographer and musician Nadia Tsulukidze continues to be fascinated by Stalin. ‘I was shocked when my grandmother told me she wept when Stalin died,’ she says, ‘because grandmother had suffered terribly under Stalin’s dictatorship. She was neither religious nor a communist, and yet she wept when Stalin died, even though she did not understand why. Then, many years later, when I saw pictures of Stalin’s funeral, filmed by his favourite film-maker Mikheil Chiaureli, I caught myself crying. And I don’t understand why either.’  

Tsulukidze studied Stalin the man, the historical figure, the Gesamtkunstwerk. She mixes live camera and by Mikheil Chiaureli from The Great Farewell, among other things, with the story of her family during the Soviet era and present-day Georgia. Stef van Alsenoy creates soundscapes. Dirk Verstockt is co-writer and director. Tsulukidze wonders whether the artist ultimately turns out to be totalitarian too.

• Nadia Tsulukidze (1976) studied music at the Mikeladze Music School in Tbilisi. After that she studied music and dance at the Eurythmy School in Stuttgart, Germany. She graduated from DasArts in Amsterdam with the documentary play Ready for Love or Seven Fragments of Identity. In 2004 she founded the multimedia performance group Khinkali Juice in Georgia.