Kornel Mundruczo

Source: La Biennale di Venezia

Kornel Mundruczo

Kornel Mundruczo is to direct The Revolution According To Kamo, a historical drama exploring the youth of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin through the eyes of his closest friend, with filming set to begin in Georgia in 2025.

Kata Weber, a frequent collaborator of Mundruczo, has adapted an original screenplay by Pawel Pawlikowski and Ben Hopkins. The script was developed with support from Film4.

The drama is a Georgian-language production spanning three decades, from 1891 to the death of Stalin’s friend Simon Arshaki Ter-Petrosyan, aka Kamo, in 1922. The film follows their lives growing up together in Georgia, with Kamo finding himself drawn into Stalin’s world of political agitation, violence and social upheaval.

Mike Goodridge of Good Chaos, the UK producer on Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness and Cannes 2024 title Santosh, produces with Ilya Stewart of Hype Studios and alongside Pawlikowski and Tanya Seghatchian’s UK-based Apocalypso Pictures.

Co-producers are France’s MK Productions; Germany’s Komplizen Film; Poland’s Madants; Hungary’s Proton Cinem; and Ketie Daniela of Georgia’s Takes Film, who will oversee local production on the ground.

Hungarian filmmaker Mundruczo described the film as “an epic movie about history, but it also sits firmly in the gangster movie genre. It’s less about a man being born evil, but about the mechanics of power and how one man rises to the top.”

He is now shooting At The Sea in the US, starring Amy Adams. Previous credits include Netflix’s Pieces of A Woman.