Svetlana About Svetlana

Directed by Lana Parshina

44 minutes / Color
Release: 2009
Copyright: 2008

Svetlana Parshina was deeply moved by her childhood reading of Twenty Letters to a Friend by Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter. Years later, learning that the now 82-year-old was living incognito in a Madison, Wisconsin retirement home, Parshina phones and requests an interview.

After repeated denials, and only after insisting upon certain conditions, the now-82-year-old Alliluyeva finally consents to a rare filmed interview in which she discusses her education, marriages, her children, the development of her own humanistic philosophy, her CIA-assisted defection to the U.S., and her skeptical views on the competing Cold War ideologies.

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In more intimate moments, she discusses her childhood, her nanny, the suicide of her mother, her brothers Vasily and Yakov (who died in a Nazi concentration camp) and, of course, her famous father, who most Soviets saw as "a living god." Her poignant and often candid reminiscences, and a few humorous anecdotes, are combined with archival footage and photos, including numerous family snapshots.

SVETLANA ABOUT SVETLANA thus offers a rare glimpse of what it was like to be the daughter of a man who had too much power.

"Highly Recommended! Fascinating; a captivating and moving story… Judging by [my students'] response, this documentary is ideal material for courses in twentieth century history. " —Educational Media Reviews Online

"A must-watch for history buffs." —A Nutshell Review

"A value of the film for the historian [is] to hear Svetlana occasionally corroborating views she wrote some fifty years ago, showing that her judgments concerning her father have not changed with time…The documentary presents an effusive, outgoing eighty-two-year-old woman whose warm persona did not come from her father." —Slavic Review

"A determined filmmaker tracked her down at an apartment at a retirement home in an undisclosed Wisconsin town for a rare interview that [would] be her last. The documentary Svetlana About Svetlana tells her fascinating and complex life story." The Associated Press

Ways to Watch

Available online from:

Colleges, Universities, Government Agencies, Hospitals, and Corporations

Purchase DVD for $348.00

Select Accolades

  • Best Directorial Debut, 2008 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival
  • 2008 Orlando Film Festival
  • 2008 Women in Film and TV Showcase
  • 2008 Molodist Kyiv Film Festival (Ukraine)
  • 2008 SCENECS Film Festival

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