[phone ringing]
Telephone.
[phone ringing]
FLUKE KELSO: Stalin knew one thing; force.
During his reign, 20 million people lost their lives.
Six million were exiled.
18 million were shipped off to the gulags.
Stalin used to spend his evenings at the Bolshoi,
or ironically watching American westerns in
his own private screening room.
Later, before he retired to bed, he'd
sign death warrants, sometimes for up to 6,000 people.
And even then, even then, he would write in the margins,
not enough.
Make no mistakes.
During the years of terror, the witch finder general
was Stalin himself.
He said, to choose one's victims,
to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake
an implacable vengeance and then go to bed,
there is nothing sweeter in the world.
[banging]
[shouting]
[chanting russian]
Who are these people?
What's their problem?
They call themselves Aurora.
They're run by an old school KGB hard
liner called Vladimir Mamantov.
Yeah, he tried to mount a coup against Gorbachev.
Yeah, I interviewed him when he came out of prison.
He still thinks the age of Stalin is the golden era.
I apologize on behalf of Russia.
Follow me to bus, please.
Hey, professor!
You think you know all about Comrade Stalin.
Let me tell you, you don't know shit.
Follow me to bus, please.
So here we are, with our degrees,
and our double doctorates, swanning around Moscow,
confronting the past.
The Russians don't want to hear about, because they're
still scared shitless of STa
Oh, come on.
No, Fluke has a point.
Unlike Hitler, he was never exercised.
They never had a Nuremberg or a Truth Commission
like they did in South Africa.
Putin's the new Czar.
This is his generation, mobile phones,
martinis, and Hugo Boss.
What does Stalin mean to them?
Yeah, but Putin's generation doesn't live out in the sticks.
You know what they're saying to each other out there?
Josef would know how to deal with these terrorists.
Let me see if I can get a table.
Do you want to go somewhere else for dinner?
Why do they call you Fluke?
Because I was a mistake.
My mother had me when she was 46.
Somebody said the name summed up your career.
Well, that just isn't nice, is it?
Italian or sushi?
You know, I think I'm just going to stick with the group.
Maybe another night?
I live in hope.
What do you want?
I want someone to hear the truth.
I was there the night Stalin lay dying.
MAN: There I was driving Comrade Beria,
Chief of the Secret Police, Stalin's hatchet man.
We left with the key and drove to the Kremlin,
straight to Stalin's private quarters.
Why did Beria choose you?
Well, I was a new boy in the city,
a boy who would keep a secret.
What did he find?
He came from the room with a folder with a notebook inside.
Then I drove him to his house.
But why didn't Beria kill you?
I mean, he killed thousands for less.
He was a clever bastard.
But he made the mistake of thinking everyone else
was stupid.
But three months later, they buried him.
So what happened to you?
They beat me, and other things.
But I never break.
So then they send me to the gulag.
I came out in '69, the day the Yankees put a man on the moon.
For first thing hit me, when was Stalin?
No pictures, no statues, where was the respect?
If this book really exists, it's a piece of history.
What use is history to me?
Well, history like this can sometimes
be worth a lot of money for you, for you and your family.
I have no family, only slut daughter who
screws men like you in clubs.
Well, she won't have to anymore if this
is worth what I think it is.
To Stalin.
I'm just--
Wait!
Tomorrow, we must be in lobby by 11:00 sharp.
No one must be late, please, for bus.
Oh my God.
What happened to you?
Research.
What was her name?
It was an old man.
He had a story to tell.
Sounds like a setup.
Well, why would he want to help you?
Because he doesn't want it to look like a setup,
wants you to track him down.
Persuade him, that's the psychology of a clever fraud.
Remember the Hitler diaries.
I think he's for real.
[latin], which means--
Yeah, I know what it means.
We always believe what we want to believe.
Thank you.
You don't want to hear that, do you?
You want him to lead you to Stalin's unpublished memoirs.
You'll make millions of dollars, rewrite history.
And a choir will sing your praises at Harvard yard.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have coffee and tea.
Gentlemen, RJ O'Brien, Moscow correspondent of SNS.
How you doing?
You going to film us?
We're just boring people at a boring conference.
You're Dr. Kelso, right?
I read your last book.
What was that, three years ago?
Four.
Actually, I believe it was five.
Well, if we're going to nitpick, it was six.
Why don't you talk to him?
You've always got something to say.
It is out of date.
Yes, I know.
Is it possible that I can renew it?
I'm a professor.
I'm writing a book.
Fill in form.
Send in mail.
Yeah, but I'm leaving Moscow tomorrow.
Could you help me, please?
I will talk to supervisor.
Are you the Kelso who wrote the book
on fall of the Communist Party?
Yes.
Yes, I guess I am.
Great book.
You really stuffed the bastards.
Thank you.
You are?
Elena Pavolva.
I need everything you've got on the death
of Stalin, Elena, statements, eyewitness accounts, please?
She will not approve this.
Does she have to know?
I found another one, page 512.
Thank you.
So you went to the Moscow State University?
I did, yes.
I spent a lot of time in this library with a girlfriend.
It was warm.
Is this your address?
No.
It is where Beria lived.
You know they found the human remains
in the basement, the bones.
He is very busy man.
I wrote an article on him a few years ago.
I'm Dr. Kelso.
I have something very important to tell him.
I remember you. You wrote shit about me.
About what?
FLUKE KELSO: About a notebook belonging to Josef Stalin.
You'd better come.
Turn around.
It's just--
I use it for making notes.
I wasn't going to--
Thank you.
So you are part of the gathering of thieves?
I'm an historian.
I'm not a thief.
Imagine if your country sold its national archive
for a few miserable dollars.
Victor.
The same sickness Reagan had.
I'm sorry.
Keep your pity.
So Stalin's notebook--
sounds like bullshit.
No.
It was mentioned in Volchenkov's biography.
His source was Alexi Yipisev, a man you knew well.
You wrote his entry in the book of heroes.
Yes, I was with him at the end when
Gorbachev came to power, a good time for a decent communist
to die.
Did he ever mention the notebook?
Who told you about this, an eyewitness from that time?
Yes.
Name.
No, I'd rather not give it to you.
So why are you here?
To find out whether it's true or not.
If it exists, it belongs in Russia, not
in some Californian university.
We are talking about a great man.
I'm sorry.
I don't share your admiration.
Really?
I think you do.
When you saw his portrait, you almost celebrated.
Stalin inherited a nation with wooden plows
and left us an empire armed with atomic weapons.
The men who came after him pissed it away.
He saw it coming.
He told them, after I've gone, the capitalists will
drown you like blind kittens.
You'd like him back, wouldn't you?
Hello?
Maggie, it's Fluke.
Look, I'm not getting back on Friday.
I've got to stay in Moscow.
Something has come up.
So tell the boys I love them, and that I'll
make it up to them.
Do you know this?
It's a club, disco, many girls.
Thank you.
Winston Churchill once described
Russia as a riddle wrapped up in a mystery inside an enigma.
Well, I like to feel that the last few days we've
solved the riddle and unraveled the mystery.
And we're left with the enigma, which, I believe, is the--
It's kind of a last night thing.
I didn't think you liked me.
I don't like your type.
And what type is that?
Wonder boy, you're so used to dazzling people
you think that talent and looks are your God given right.
Well, it's a long time since I've dazzled anybody.
I just want to get laid before I go back to Princeton.
OK.
Meet me by the lift.
After you.
Look, just hold this a sec, would you?
I'm sorry about that.
You total shit.
Hi, I'm looking for someone, Ripava, works here.
I'll ask.
What are you drinking?
Bushmills.
No ice.
Grabbing bartenders, that's smart,
get served first, impress the ladies.
Remember me, I met you this morning, RJ O'Brien.
How are you doing?
You alone?
Yeah.
Won't be for long.
The good ones ask for 400.
Offer two, settle on three.
But be careful of the real babes.
They may be spoken for.
If the other guy is Russian, walk away.
I'm not looking.
Oh, come on.
Everyone is looking.
Here, these girls have class.
OK?
Galina, tell the professor what you do for a living.
I lease property to Scandinavian businesses.
See that?
You see that girl over there, red hair?
Works for the Moscow Currency Exchange.
Where's Elissa? She's a radiologist.
She got shot, RJ.
Seriously?
Whoa.
Moscow may have its maxims.
But it's still Dodge City.
Though, I bet you're just more interested in the old days,
huh?
I heard you're chasing down a story, ghosts from the past?
Who told you that?
Edelman, said you were really juiced.
It's a dead end.
The barman says you ask for me.
You're Ripava?
Looks like you're covered, professor.
We'll talk soon.
So how did you hear about me?
Does it matter?
400.
Two.
Three.
OK.
My name's Fluke Kelso.
What's yours?
What name do you like?
What's your wife's name?
I don't actually have one at the moment.
OK, what's your hotel?
- Ukrana. - What a dump.
Look, actually I don't want to sleep
with you, although that would be a very attractive proposition.
But I need something else from you.
Whatever you want, it's still 300.
I need to find your father.
Look, just take me to where he is.
Please! I'll still give you the money.
Please!
400.
Fine, great, thank you.
You're Studying the law?
Money.
What?
Money.
Half no, and then half later.
I can get another fuck, mister.
Can you get another ride?
Block number nine, apartment 12, fifth floor, the door code
is 3131.
You're not to come up with me?
He doesn't like the way I dress.
Will you wait?
If you want.
3131.
Bitch.
[russian singing]
Hello?
[russian singing]
[grunting]
[shouting]
[phone ringing]
Please empty your pockets.
What?
Everything, passport, wallet, tie.
Look, I have given my statement.
I'm a witness. I'm not a suspect.
I give you receipt.
OK, right, I want to call the embassy.
I want to know my rights.
Shoelaces.
Mr. Kelso?
What?
I'll give you a ride.
Your plane it leaves at 1:30.
And you'll be on it.
You know what?
This is outrageous.
I report a dead body.
I'm mugged while I'm calling the police.
I didn't kill the old man.
Oh, but you did, when you told Mamantov
you had a witness from the old times,
that was his death sentence.
I didn't give a name.
He didn't need a name.
He already knew it.
I didn't.
I had to dig through the old KGB files.
And what did you find?
I found Papa Ravanov, 20 years after he came out the gulags
they arrested him again.
And he was questioned by the head of the field directory,
Vladimir Pavlovich Mamantov.
You see now, he precisely knew who you were talking about.
There were no other witnesses from the old times.
They're all dead.
So you bug Mamantov's apartment?
Yes, we bug Mamantov's apartment.
We'd like to know what he did with 500 million rubles.
He's the founder of the KGB files.
Yeah, but this is murder.
Why don't you bring him in?
Professor, why don't you go back home, and play your games
of history in your own country?
What, so you can find Stalin's files and bury them?
Mr. Kelso, I'm totally sick of people
like you throwing past in our faces.
And I'm sick of people like Mamantov trying
to make gods out of monsters.
We'll take you back to your hotel.
Listen, the old man, he didn't break in '53, or in the gulag,
or later when they hauled him in.
What if he didn't break last night?
So what's your point?
I want to talk to his daughter.
Maybe you should get to her first.
Rough night, professor?
I've had worse.
Well, when I saw you leave the Juju
Club with that lovely Xena--
Oh, was that her name?
I didn't catch it.
Tell me, did you get any action before you got arrested?
How the bloody hell did you know that?
Professor, when a high profile Westerner ends up in a cell,
I get a call, and somebody gets a backhander.
Look, you made page three, body found in bath of blood.
Don't worry. You weren't mentioned.
Cops give you a hard time?
I was sprung, excuse me.
And they weren't cops, not wearing a Kashmir
coat and handmade shoes.
It's intelligence, FSB.
So did he want to know about Stalin's notebook?
Edelman told me.
Edelman's a prick.
I'll tell you how much of a prick
he is, guy tried to rope me in.
He says, I find the book, we go 50-50
and leave you out of the loop.
You academics, one sniff of a scoop
and you make the paparazzi look like a bunch of choirboys.
It doesn't make any difference.
I'm being deported.
I'm not.
Give me what you got.
It's dead, died with the old man.
Today, custom wish to open every bag.
Oh, this is not good.
I bought an icon.
You worried, Fluke, got the Stalin diaries
tucked in your underwear?
Have you told everyone?
Well, in all honesty, I didn't take it too seriously.
You know what?
Screw you.
How did you find me?
I went to your hotel.
They said that you have checked out.
Look, um, I've got to get on a plane to New York.
I'd love to help you, but I don't know how.
I don't ask favors.
I never ask favors.
So why are you here?
When I got home last night, there
was a note from my father.
It says that there is something valuable,
and you can tell me what it is, in a toolbox.
Come here.
When did you last see your father?
Three days ago.
Before that, eight years.
He came to the club.
He saw my dress, and called me a whore.
I don't think he'd wait eight years just to tell you that.
I don't care.
I don't want him in my life.
He has always been a bastard.
Why would he change now?
Zenaida, your father is dead.
Hey.
We should go.
Who killed him?
They think a man called Vladimir Mamantov.
He knew your father from the old time.
Always in my life, the old time.
[music playing]