The Soviet Story

An offensively schlocky treatment of an important subject, The Soviet Story turns Stalin’s systematic starvation and slaughter of millions into a hopped-up horror flick. Why simply cut to a photo of an emaciated body when that image can be zoomed in on, swaddled in generic “ominous” orchestra music and portentously overexplained (“And then…the hunger began”)? The doc has spurred protests in the former USSR for minor historical inaccuracies; the greater transgression is a histrionic technique that suggests Stalin’s crimes aren’t punchy enough.