Unused / unissued material – no paperwork – dates unclear or unknown. Mexico.
A clapper board comes down in front of Leon Trotsky – communist thinker, writer and revolutionary.
Trotsky is holding a copy of his book ‘Behind The Moscow Trial’. He stands in front of a brick wall. He apologises for his poor English and gives thanks to the Mexican people and their leader President Cardenas. He thanks Cardenas for allowing him to go from being held ‘under lock and key’ in Norway to being able to talk freely in Mexico.
He says that Stalin’s trial against him is based on false evidence. This is based on Stalinism – ‘the irresponsible despotism of the bureaucracy over the people.”
He wants to show his personal files to an independent inquiry to prove himself innocent. He wants a counter trial. A Mexican voice calls out cut.
N.B. Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico in August 1940. This film dates from between 1937 and then.
For those with a Stalinist bent it is interesting to note the crowing of the cockerel in the background – shades of St Peter denying Christ perhaps.
Combined Print in UN 103 H. FILM ID:464.03 A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ
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