The Death of Stalin

 Year of Release:  2017

Director:  Armando Iannucci

Screenplay:  Armando Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin, from a screenplay by Fabian Nury and based on the graphic novel La Mort de Staline by Fabian Nury and Thierry Roin

Starring:  Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Whitehouse

Running Time;  105 minutes

Genre:  Satire, comedy

The Soviet Union, 1953:  The country is in the grip of Premier Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) and his Central Committee, who themselves constantly live in fear of getting on the wrong side of Stalin.  When Staline suffers a cerebral haemorrhage and dies, the Central Committee is thrown into turmoil, as each member plots, schemes and manipulates their way to the centre of power.

Scottish writer, director and satirist Armando Iannucci has made a name for himself poking fun at the dark absurdities of British and American politics with his TV shows such as The Day Today (1994), The Saturday Night Armistice (1995-1999), The Thick of It (2005-2012) and Veep (2012-2019).  Here he turns his satirical gaze on the much darker historical absurdity of the Stalinist-era Soviet Union.  It depicts a world of absurd paranoia.  The film opens with Stalin ordering a recording of a concert, which hadn't been recorded, and so the orchestra and audience have to be hurriedly pulled back and the whole thing remounted.  Every evening Vyacheslav Molotov (played by ex-Monty Python member Michael Palin) gets his wife to list down everything he has said in Stalin's presence and note down which got good reactions and which didn't.  Following Stalin's death, there's a vying for power, while his funeral is prepared.  The comedy comes from the resulting backbiting, alliances and treachery, as well as the fact that whenever there is a big event to be organised, whatever can go wrong will go wrong.  There is also the fact that these characters are constantly in danger for their lives, the wrong word could get you name on a list which would mean death.  The threat of prison, torture and execution is constant throughout the film, but it doesn't really go to much into the atrocities of the Stalin regime.  It's. clever film, which is consistently amusing, although more witty than laugh out loud funny, and often the darkness drowns out the humour.  It also features a great cast of familiar comedy faces at the top of their game, each one of which has their chance to shine,         

The Death of Stalin