“Young Stalin,” Simon Sebag Montefiore’s biography chronicling the life of Joseph Stalin as a bank-robbing gangster in pre-revolutionary Russia, is being adapted for film.
The feature is being produced by Archil Gelovani and Sergey Yahontov’s Georgia-based banner Independent Film Project (IFP), producers of recent Venice special jury prize winner “April,” alongside Sam Taylor at Film and Music Entertainment, with financing from Len Blavatnik’s Access Entertainment, which backed Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed Oscar-winning film “The Zone of Interest.”
Earmarked for production in 2025/26, “Young Stalin” will tell the story off how a diminutive 20-something “Soso” (a nickname given to him by his mother) led a group of revolutionaries in a massive bank heist to rob the Imperial Bank in 1907 Tbilisi and in the process became the man known as “Stalin.” As the description reads, this was “the Wild Wild East, made up of Cossacks, Bolshevik gunslingers, the Tsar’s...
The feature is being produced by Archil Gelovani and Sergey Yahontov’s Georgia-based banner Independent Film Project (IFP), producers of recent Venice special jury prize winner “April,” alongside Sam Taylor at Film and Music Entertainment, with financing from Len Blavatnik’s Access Entertainment, which backed Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed Oscar-winning film “The Zone of Interest.”
Earmarked for production in 2025/26, “Young Stalin” will tell the story off how a diminutive 20-something “Soso” (a nickname given to him by his mother) led a group of revolutionaries in a massive bank heist to rob the Imperial Bank in 1907 Tbilisi and in the process became the man known as “Stalin.” As the description reads, this was “the Wild Wild East, made up of Cossacks, Bolshevik gunslingers, the Tsar’s...
- 9/10/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not the first time the country meddled in the politics of its former member states. In 1991, the democratically elected president of Georgia was overthrown by part of the National Guard and a paramilitary organization called “Mkhedrioni” (“horsemen”) that were backed by Russia. For ‘Limitation' Georgian filmmakers Elene Asatiani and Soso Dumbadze only used documentary material depicting this period of which in recent years, a large amount has been posted on the Internet.
Limitation is screening at the Museum of Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2024 program
The filmmakers chose images from a variety of sources, giving different, sometimes contradicting perspectives on the events at the time. The film opens with a set of clips establishing the atmosphere. They show us the different views people had on Zviad Gamsakhurdia. There is a recording of a Georgian family partying, one of them carrying a gun.
Limitation is screening at the Museum of Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2024 program
The filmmakers chose images from a variety of sources, giving different, sometimes contradicting perspectives on the events at the time. The film opens with a set of clips establishing the atmosphere. They show us the different views people had on Zviad Gamsakhurdia. There is a recording of a Georgian family partying, one of them carrying a gun.
- 3/16/2024
- by Nancy Fornoville
- AsianMoviePulse
The news of the death of the last Ussr leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday got little attention outside of the former Soviet Bloc. Thirty-three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has moved on. But for a generation of us growing up behind the Iron Curtain, he changed the course of our lives and allowed us to pursue careers we never thought possible.
When you type Gorbachev’s name into Google, the search engine’s top suggestion is “Gorbachev Pizza Hut,” a reference to the famous 1998 TV commercial featuring the politician who became the first and only President of the Soviet Union.
In it, he and a little girl walk into a restaurant and share a pizza. As older and younger patrons recognize him, they begin to debate in Russian, with an older man arguing that because of Gorbachev, there is economic turmoil and political instability, and...
When you type Gorbachev’s name into Google, the search engine’s top suggestion is “Gorbachev Pizza Hut,” a reference to the famous 1998 TV commercial featuring the politician who became the first and only President of the Soviet Union.
In it, he and a little girl walk into a restaurant and share a pizza. As older and younger patrons recognize him, they begin to debate in Russian, with an older man arguing that because of Gorbachev, there is economic turmoil and political instability, and...
- 8/31/2022
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Power Trip
New York's Film Forum
NEW YORK -- The travails of an American multinational corporation attempting to provide electric power to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia would seem to be more suitable fodder for a "60 Minutes" investigative piece than a feature-length documentary, but Paul Devlin's "Power Trip" provides evidence to the contrary. A gripping film dealing with a variety of complicated themes, the film even at times manages to play like a suspense thriller. Recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, it is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Taking place some 10 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the film depicts the efforts of the AES Corp., a Virginia-based company that is the largest independent owner of power in the world, to fully wire the financially depressed city of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Attempting to infuse the area with a dose of Western-style free-market economics, the company faced disastrous results. The population, used to receiving their power for free under the old Soviet regime, now faced electric bills that represented a major chunk of their monthly income.
Attempting to play hardball, the company shut power off for those customers who refused to pay, which at one point included the Army and the airport. The outraged citizenry took matters into their own hands, demonstrating against the company's practices and willfully stealing electricity by tapping into existing power lines. Adding further difficulties to the process was the rampant government corruption, which has recently led to the resignation of president Eduard Shevardnadze. Eventually, the company found itself faced with a loss of more than $200 million.
Filmmaker Devlin details this complicated series of events with clarity, a sense of drama and more than a few touches of dark humor, managing to make this specific story an effective microcosmic portrait of the vast political, social and economic changes endured by the region.
NEW YORK -- The travails of an American multinational corporation attempting to provide electric power to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia would seem to be more suitable fodder for a "60 Minutes" investigative piece than a feature-length documentary, but Paul Devlin's "Power Trip" provides evidence to the contrary. A gripping film dealing with a variety of complicated themes, the film even at times manages to play like a suspense thriller. Recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, it is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Taking place some 10 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the film depicts the efforts of the AES Corp., a Virginia-based company that is the largest independent owner of power in the world, to fully wire the financially depressed city of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Attempting to infuse the area with a dose of Western-style free-market economics, the company faced disastrous results. The population, used to receiving their power for free under the old Soviet regime, now faced electric bills that represented a major chunk of their monthly income.
Attempting to play hardball, the company shut power off for those customers who refused to pay, which at one point included the Army and the airport. The outraged citizenry took matters into their own hands, demonstrating against the company's practices and willfully stealing electricity by tapping into existing power lines. Adding further difficulties to the process was the rampant government corruption, which has recently led to the resignation of president Eduard Shevardnadze. Eventually, the company found itself faced with a loss of more than $200 million.
Filmmaker Devlin details this complicated series of events with clarity, a sense of drama and more than a few touches of dark humor, managing to make this specific story an effective microcosmic portrait of the vast political, social and economic changes endured by the region.
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Power Trip
New York's Film Forum
NEW YORK -- The travails of an American multinational corporation attempting to provide electric power to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia would seem to be more suitable fodder for a "60 Minutes" investigative piece than a feature-length documentary, but Paul Devlin's "Power Trip" provides evidence to the contrary. A gripping film dealing with a variety of complicated themes, the film even at times manages to play like a suspense thriller. Recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, it is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Taking place some 10 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the film depicts the efforts of the AES Corp., a Virginia-based company that is the largest independent owner of power in the world, to fully wire the financially depressed city of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Attempting to infuse the area with a dose of Western-style free-market economics, the company faced disastrous results. The population, used to receiving their power for free under the old Soviet regime, now faced electric bills that represented a major chunk of their monthly income.
Attempting to play hardball, the company shut power off for those customers who refused to pay, which at one point included the Army and the airport. The outraged citizenry took matters into their own hands, demonstrating against the company's practices and willfully stealing electricity by tapping into existing power lines. Adding further difficulties to the process was the rampant government corruption, which has recently led to the resignation of president Eduard Shevardnadze. Eventually, the company found itself faced with a loss of more than $200 million.
Filmmaker Devlin details this complicated series of events with clarity, a sense of drama and more than a few touches of dark humor, managing to make this specific story an effective microcosmic portrait of the vast political, social and economic changes endured by the region.
NEW YORK -- The travails of an American multinational corporation attempting to provide electric power to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia would seem to be more suitable fodder for a "60 Minutes" investigative piece than a feature-length documentary, but Paul Devlin's "Power Trip" provides evidence to the contrary. A gripping film dealing with a variety of complicated themes, the film even at times manages to play like a suspense thriller. Recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, it is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Taking place some 10 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the film depicts the efforts of the AES Corp., a Virginia-based company that is the largest independent owner of power in the world, to fully wire the financially depressed city of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Attempting to infuse the area with a dose of Western-style free-market economics, the company faced disastrous results. The population, used to receiving their power for free under the old Soviet regime, now faced electric bills that represented a major chunk of their monthly income.
Attempting to play hardball, the company shut power off for those customers who refused to pay, which at one point included the Army and the airport. The outraged citizenry took matters into their own hands, demonstrating against the company's practices and willfully stealing electricity by tapping into existing power lines. Adding further difficulties to the process was the rampant government corruption, which has recently led to the resignation of president Eduard Shevardnadze. Eventually, the company found itself faced with a loss of more than $200 million.
Filmmaker Devlin details this complicated series of events with clarity, a sense of drama and more than a few touches of dark humor, managing to make this specific story an effective microcosmic portrait of the vast political, social and economic changes endured by the region.
- 12/15/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.