Evgueni Khaldei | Wajnbrosse

Evgueni Khaldei, photographer under Stalin

Synopsis

Born in Ukraine in 1917, with the revolution, Khaldei initiated himself into photography by making a camera lens with his grandmother's glasses.

War breaks out and Evgueni becomes a war photographer. He was part of Marshal Zhukov's army, of which he became a friend, and participated in the liberation of Berlin. He photographs the capture of the Reichstag, a symbolic photo.

His fame allows him to approach Stalin, he becomes his official photographer and accompanies him to Potsdam. It will also be present at Nuremberg, and at the Paris agreements. He works for the Tass agency and for Pravda. His photos are in the headlines.

Latent anti-Semitism is resurfacing, there is the affair of Stalin's doctors, the purges. He was kicked out of Tass, then Jews were forbidden to work for Pravda. Khaldei sees his symbolic picture of the Reichstag go around the world, while he lives humbly in a tiny Moscow apartment.

Yevgeny Khaldei, photographer under Stalin is the only existing documentary on the life of the most important Soviet photographer of the twentieth century.

Technical sheet

Scenario and direction: Marc-Henri Wajnberg

Duration: 64 minutes

Year: 1997

A Wajnbrosse production

In co-production with Cult Films, ORF (Austria) and NOS (Netherlands)

With the support of the French Community of Belgium, RTBF, ARTE, MÉDIA and Eurimages

DVD

Press