If you have the slightest curiosity about the people and the period, “Stalin’s Wife” is mandatory viewing.
– Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
“Stalin’s Wife” is a fascinating documentary about an otherwise-forgotten character in history. It’s a sad story of the woman who was married to the man who’d become a mass murderer and iron-fisted dictator. How they came up with some of the footage is amazing.
– Jeffrey Lyons, NBC-TV
With its clouds of doubt and uncertainty, “Stalin’s Wife” reminds us that history is only an official interpretation of selected facts that when examined often turn out to be educated guesses.
– Stephen Holden, New York Times
At first glance, it seems unlikely that Slava Tsukerman, who directed the sexy cult classic “Liquid Sky,” would also make a straightforward documentary on Russian History. As it turns out, though, there’s plenty of passion beneath this movie’s unadorned surface.
– Elizabeth Weltzman, New York Daily News
This is a complete eye-opening document on the Soviet dictator and his long suffering wife.
– Andrew Johnson, North American Film Review
Fascinating investigation of the life and fate of Stalin’s young wife, shrouded in Russian history. Stalin’s Wife is as illuminating, trenchant and penetrating as any fiction film. Additionally, it proves that writer-director Tsukerman doesn’t need space aliens in his stories to devise a fascinating picture.
– Eric Monder, Film Journal
“Stalin’s Wife” … offers a fascinating tapestry of love, madness, politics, suspicions and jealousies against one of the most tumultuous backdrops of the 20th century … provides an extraordinary journey into the darkest corners of Russian history.
– Phil Hall, Film Threat
<<Stalin’s Wife>> has a Tolstoyan density, telling stories within stories.
The movie draws from archives that were once inaccessible, and talks to Stalin’s living relatives …
– Maurie Alioff, Cine Festival
At the tender age of sixteen Nadezhda Alliluyev (1901-1932) married Joseph Stalin, twenty three years her senior. Throughout their fourteen years of family life, Nadezhda stood by as Stalin transformed from the ordinary revolutionary into the unlimited dictator. One morning she was found dead, in her bed, a revolver by her side. Up to this day historians continue the heated debate as to whether she had killed herself or was murdered by Stalin.
Most of the events of Nadezhda’s short and tragic life are as enigmatic as her death. The documentary about Nadezhda’s shattered and abruptly short life includes many sensational, never before published archival materials.
Best known as the director of the cult classic Liquid Sky (five awards at International Film Festivals), Slava Tsukerman has directed internationally forty-three films of varying genres. The most well known of his documentaries, Once Upon a Time There Were Russians in Jerusalem, produced by Israeli Television, was a first prize winner at the Tenth World Film Festival of TV films in Hollywood.