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TESTIMONY - The Story of Shostakovich
Directed by
Tony Palmer

Testimony, based loosely on Shostakovichs own memoirs as related to and edited by his colleague, Solomon Volkov, is not just the story of a composer. In fact, the musical aspect of his life is only the sub-plot to a far greater drama, the relationship between Shostakovich and Stalin. Testimony is about Russia during the reign of Stalin. While politicians, generals, peasants, poets, Church leaders were being purged and destroyed - in all, some 31 million of them -Shostakovich somehow survived. How? Why? At what cost, personal as well as public? It is an amazing and awesome tale. It is also true.

Review by Rob Barnett


Writing credits
Tony Palmer
David Rudkin

Cast
Ben Kingsley .... Dmitri Shostakovich
Sherry Baines .... Nina Shostakovich
Magdalen Asquith .... Galya Shostakovich
Mark Asquith .... Maxim Shostakovich
Terence Rigby .... Joseph Stalin
Ronald Pickup .... Marshall Tukhachevsky
John Shrapnel .... Andre Zhdanov
Robert Reynolds .... Brutus
Vernon Dobtcheff .... Gargolovsky
Colin Hurst .... Stalin's Secretary
Joyce Grundy .... Stalin's Mother
Mark Thrippleton .... Young Stalin
Liza Goddard .... The English Humanist
Peter Woodthorpe .... Alexander Glazunov
Robert Stephens .... Vsevolod Meyerhold
William Squire .... Khatchaturyan
Murray Melvin .... The Film Editor
Robert Urquhart .... The Journalist
Christopher Bramwell .... Vanya
Brook Williams .... H.G. Wells
Marita Phillips .... Madam Lupinskaya

Produced by
Michael Henry .... executive producer
Grahame Jennings .... executive producer
Michael Kustow .... executive producer
Maureen Murray .... associate producer
Tony Palmer .... producer
Solomon Volkov .... consultant



 


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