BFF17 The Death of Stalin

Attention comrades! Armando Iannucci – the Scottish-born, Oscar-nominated writer of In the Loop, and the Emmy and BAFTA award-winning creator of Veep, I’m Alan Partridge and The Thick of It – sets his sights on global domination with the all-star cast in The Death of Stalin, an acerbic send-up of the Soviet Supremo and his band of scheming bootlicks.

Based on the graphic novel by Thierry Robin and Fabien Nury, the historical satire is set in the USSR in the turbulent hours and days after its once all-powerful ruler, Joseph Stalin, suffers a stroke and dies in 1953. As his stricken body lies on the floor of his summer retreat in the Moscow suburbs, his senior advisors grapple to assert control in the ensuing power vacuum, plunging the Soviet Union into violent uncertainty.

Relentlessly funny – vicious and delicious – The Death of Stalin is the first film Iannucci has directed since In the Loop and stars a host of prominent actors as Stalin’s underlings, including Steve Buscemi (Fargo) as Nikita Khrushchev; Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) as Stalin’s heir, Georgy Malenkov; and Jason Isaacs (Fury) as Georgy Zhukov.