Circus

The Circus is a Socialist Realist film but I didn’t really get a feel for that until the end. Near the end of the film we find out Marion left America because she has an African-American child and is discriminated because of him. In the 1930’s this would have likely been the case in America but this also shows Soviet propaganda putting down another country while the Soviets accept everybody as the audience in the arena embraces the child. At the very end of the film it shows Marion marching next Petrovich down Red Square and showing their support of the Soviet Union. She says she has never felt so free in her life which is an ironic statement considering that during the 1930s Stalin and his men terrorized the people. Overall I didn’t find the film extremely entertaining and if I was part of the Soviet government I would be disappointed in the lack of propaganda it conveyed.