An Ordinary Execution

“Dugain imagines an encounter between Stalin and a young doctor, Anna, who inspires malign obsession from male colleagues on account of her extreme beauty and popularity with patients, stemming from a rumoured healing ‘aura’ from her hands. Stalin imperiously makes Anna his top-secret personal physician, an intimacy which he decrees is so important that it supersedes and invalidates every other relationship in her life – especially her marriage.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian