Jessica Gorter

Why is it that still so many Russians defend Stalin as a great leader and a hero? The red Soul lays bare the Russian psyche of today and shows a world full of contradictions.

In the country where hardly any family escaped the hunger, fear and violence resulting from Stalin's terror, no one has ever been convicted for the crimes committed under his regime. Even now Russians are still deeply divided over how to deal with the memories of this painful past. In a mosaic of intimate portraits ordinary Russians speak openly about their traumas, rooted in a violent history. Gradually this disturbing film exposes how the Soviet past lives on in current generations in Russia, and thus makes its mark on the future.