Armando Iannucci has a gift for lacerating political satire, creating Westminster send-up The Thick&nbsp;of It before hopping over the Pond to take down the White House with Veep. He is able to find the humour in the bumbling errors of incompetent authority figures as well as tear them down with some&nbsp;bombastically foul-mouthed insults. However, until now the stakes his characters have had to face were no higher than losing face or, at worst, an election. In his latest feature film, The Death of Stalin, blunders are just as likely to be met with a bullet to the head as they are stinging barbs.Set in 1953, in the paranoid world of totalitarian Russia, Kremlin officials gather ostensibly to decide how to maintain control of the Soviet Union after the titular dictator dies from a stroke. However, what actually happens is the group resort to farcical in-fighting and bloody backstabbing as they each try to appoint themselves as Stalin&rsquo;s successor. This confederacy of dunces is made up of an all-star cast: Steve Buscemi&rsquo;s Nikita Khrushchev is a weaselly politician who doesn&rsquo;t hide his ambition; Jeffery Tambor is Georgry Malenkov, the heir apparent who doesn&rsquo;t have a clue what he&rsquo;s doing; Simon Russell Beale is Lavrenity Bear, the absolutely vile chief of the NKVD secret police; and Michael Palin plays a diplomat with a dash of Life of Brian silliness. As the group&rsquo;s vying for power intensifies, the ensemble cast is rounded out by Jason Issacs as Field Marshal Zhukov.That none of these transatlantic actors adopt a Russian actor is never an issue &mdash; and perhaps a blessing. Then again, the fact that Issacs actually puts on a Sean Bean-style Yorkshire brogue to play the head of the Red Army is, for better or worse, part of the reason he steals every scene.While the plot is broadly lifted from the French graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, Iannucci and co-writers David Schneider and Ian Martin ramp up the sycophancy, cronyism and doublespeak that made The Thick of It and Veep required watching.Having said that, The Death of Stalin is as unsettling as it is entertaining. The horrors of Stalin&rsquo;s regime, as brutal as it was bureaucratic, form the backdrop to all the bickering and scheming. As well as name-checking real events and offering glimpses inside a gulag, guffawing laughter can quickly turn to a shocking gasp as slapstick buffoonery gives way to senseless violence. The last ten minutes of the film are particularly hard to watch as the most successful power play reaches its harrowing endgame.For the most part, Iannucci successfully walks this tricky tightrope so that it never feels like one of the darkest periods of modern history is being treated glibly. If anything, the film speaks to a deeper truth about totalitarianism, in which any situation where so few people have so much power is as terrifying as it is absurd. Disappointingly, however, the Blu-ray and DVD special features are limited to interviews with the cast and crew and deleted scenes instead of anything a little meatier.This comedy of terrors doesn&rsquo;t dismiss of the horrors of Stalin&rsquo;s reign but it does serve as a reminder to laugh in the face of trumped-up authoritarians.

The Death Of Stalin

English

Spanish(español)

Bengali(বাঙালি)

Gujarati(ગુજરાતી)

Hindi(हिन्दी)

Malayalam(മലയാളം)

Tamil(தமிழ்)

Telugu(తెలుగు)

All About History UK

JAPAN HAD INVADED INDIA?

BATTLE OF EYLAU

"HENRY V WAS THE PERFECT MEDIEVAL KING"

The Mother of a Nation

James Baldwin

PLAYING With HISTORY

Queen ANCIENT Lovers

FLAWED FOUNDING OF THE UNITED STATES

BRINGING MODERN ART TO THE PEOPLE

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE

Download your favorite titles and read them offline, anytime and anywhere

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines and newspapers from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from {{magCount}}+ best-selling international titles.

Name

Please fill out this form if you need any help regarding publishing your content on Magzter

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below: