I tried watching a new Russian film on Lenin last night called The Lenin Factor but realized it was capitalist propaganda so can’t recommend it. Apparently now that Russia has gone full capitalist oligarchy, they are attempting to rewrite the legacy of Lenin and turn him into a villain. It looks like I’m going to have to stick to classic Soviet era films when it comes to the Revolution, though modern WWII era films can still be good. So I’m falling back on a good standby for this week’s film.
This week’s reasonable movie is The Young Karl Marx by Raoul Peck. A historical film based on the events leading up to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels writing the Communist Manifesto. Historically accurate with some of the dialogue being based on Marx and Engel’s correspondence, this is a great look into the mind of a young revolutionary.
It is available free on TubiTV and Amazon (apparently with ads through IMDB).
Raoul Peck at The Young Karl Marx Press Conference in Berlin in 2017. This file is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International license. Attribution: Elena Ringo http://www.elena-ringo.com
I also recommend any work by Raoul Peck. His latest miniseries - Exterminate All The Brutes is a really good look at settler colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism, though it can be a little hard to follow at times. You really can’t go wrong with any of his movies.