Stalin's Sickle

Stalin’s Sickle takes suburban paranoia to unexpected places, as nine-year-old Daniel imagines that his neighbour is feared Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. Costa Botes' short film is set in a 1960s era of Cold War conservatism. Daniel (Stacey Adams) spots the South Seas Stalin at church, spies on him to confirm his suspicions and schemes to send him on his way. But Daniel’s civil defence plan goes awry, leaving him with a worse threat to deal with. Based on a short story by Michael Morrissey, the film won a Jury Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in France. Botes writes about the film's journey here. 

I think one of the hardest forms of filmmaking is doing a satisfying half-hour drama because it's such an incredibly limited time frame. You've got very little time to set up a satisfying storyline and establish characters in depth — you can only really imply them. So when one sees a story that leaps out and begs to be filmed within that format it becomes very tempting.

– Director Costa Botes on deciding that Michael Morrisey's short story Stalin's Sickle would make a good half-hour film, The Listener, 17 October 1987, page 34

Key Cast & Crew

Jim Macfarlane

As: Stalin

Stephen Gledhill

As: Father Connolly

Stacey Adams

As: Daniel

Costa Botes

Director, Writer, Producer

Michael Morrissey

Original Author

Anne Kennedy

Writer