To prepare for the role, Robert Duvall watched numerous hours of newsreels, read many books about Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, and spoke to Russians who remembered him. He said that playing Stalin was the most challenging role of his career.
This movie premiered in Russia on the 75th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
The first American movie to be premiered in Moscow.
Director Ivan Passer was one of the many filmmakers responsible for the Czech New Wave movement of the 1960s. His Intimate lighting is considered a classic of the period. However, like so many others, the Prague Spring, which allowed new directions in arts, society, and politics, also stigmatized him when the Soviets invaded in 1968 and a harsh cloud descended over every aspect of life in Czechoslovakia. He emigrated to the U.S., hoping to restart his career there, but never managed to get the respect that his talents deserved. This movie is no doubt in part a negative homage to the ideological reverberations that so deeply scarred his professional life.
The cast includes two Oscar winners: Robert Duvall and Maximilian Schell; and three Oscar nominees: Dame Joan Plowright, Frank Finlay, and Daniel Massey.