With “Skazka (Fairytale)”, Alexander Sokurov accompanies some tyrants in limbo

At the entrance to the dark selve where Dante ventures, it is specified “You who enter here, abandon all hope”. The admonition could also figure prominently in the tale of Alexander Sokurov, who preferred a biblical quote: “You strangled Satan, bearer of passion, with the divine cords of your suffering”. Stalin lies on his deathbed. He moans that his boots are hurting him, that his underpants are squeezing him. At his side, Jesus says “I hurt everywhere”. In ambush, a little further, Adolf Hitler spies on the dying.