AN ORDINARY EXECUTION Une exécution ordinaire Festival Selection: Seattle International Film Festival (2010) North American Premiere Drama/Historical France, 2010 In French with English subtitles 35mm/1.85/Color/Dolby DTS/105 min Written and directed by: Marc Dugain Based on the novel by: Marc Dugain Cinematography by: Yves Angelo Editing by: Fabrice Rouaud Produced by: Jean-Louis Livi Production Company: F Comme Film Coproduction: France 3 Cinéma, StudioCanal International Sales: StudioCanal 1, place du Spectacle 92863 Issy-les Moulineaux France Phone: +33 1.71.35.35.35 www.studiocanal.com Cast: André Dussollier (Joseph Stalin), Marina Hands (Anna), Edouard Baer (Vassilli), Denis Podalydès (The Concierge), Tom Novembre (The Hospital Chief), Grégory Gadebois (Department Director), Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus (Beria), Anne Benoît (Alexandra, Anna’s mother), Gilles Ségal (Uncle Anton) Set in 1952 in the Soviet Union, An Ordinary Execution stars acclaimed actor André Dussollier (Wild Grass, Tell No One (COL•COA 2007), Same Old Song, Amelie, Three Men and a Cradle) as Joseph Stalin in his last days. Following the alleged conspiracy known as "The Doctors’ Plot", Stalin has deported a group of Jewish doctors accused of poisoning Soviet officials, including his own personal practitioner Miron Vovsi. Old and suffering from various ailments, Stalin calls on Anna (Marina Hands, Hidden Diary (COL•COA 2010), Lady Chatterley, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), a young urologist with magnetic healing powers, to appease his pain. As she becomes his personal healer, she enters the unsettling and terrifying world of the tyrant. MARC DUGAIN studied finance and was the president of an airline company before becoming a writer. His first novel The Officers’ Ward (1998) won 18 literary awards, including the Prix des Deux Magots and the Roger-Nimier award. It was adapted in 2001 by writer-director François Dupeyron and presented in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Marc Dugain followed with three acclaimed novels: Campagne Anglaise (Lattès, 2000), Heureux comme Dieu en France (Gallimard, 2002) and La malédiction d’Edgar (Gallimard, 2005), which was translated into 22 languages. His fifth novel, Une Exécution Ordinaire was published in 2007 and quickly became a best-seller. An Ordinary Execution is his debut feature as writer-director. PRESS Marc Dugain's debut feature, "An Ordinary Execution," adds an intriguing twist to the historical consensus on the dictator's demise in its portrayal of an encounter between the ailing Stalin and a young doctor who has healing and pain-relieving powers in her hands. (...) Dugain's story is an ingenious attempt to dissect the corrosive cynicism underlying the Kremlin's mindset, exemplified by Stalin's much-quoted dictum, evoked in a closing title, that while one man's death is a tragedy, the death of a million men is a statistic." Bernard Besserglik, The Hollywood Reporter.