The Death of Stalin

2017 political satire film by Armando Iannucci

For other uses, see Death of Stalin (disambiguation).

The Death of Stalin

British theatrical release poster

Directed by| Armando Iannucci
Written by|

* Armando Iannucci
* David Schneider
* Ian Martin
* Peter Fellows (additional material)

Screenplay by| Fabien Nury
Based on|

La Mort de Staline

* Fabien Nury (writer) &
* Thierry Robin (illustrator)

Produced by|

* Yann Zenou
* Laurent Zeitoun
* Nicolas Duval Adassovsky
* Kevin Loader

Starring|

* Steve Buscemi
* Simon Russell Beale
* Paddy Considine
* Rupert Friend
* Jason Isaacs
* Michael Palin
* Andrea Riseborough
* Jeffrey Tambor

Cinematography| Zac Nicholson
Edited by| Peter Lambert
Music by| Christopher Willis

Production
companies

* Gaumont
* Quad Productions
* Main Journey
* France 3 Cinema
* La Cie Cinématographique
* Panache Productions
* AFPI
* Canal+
* Ciné+
* France Télévisions
* Title Media

Distributed by|

* Entertainment One Films
(United Kingdom)
* Gaumont (France)
* September Film Distribution (Belgium)

Release dates

* 8 September 2017 (2017-09-08) (TIFF)
* 20 October 2017 (2017-10-20) (United Kingdom)
* 4 April 2018 (2018-04-04) (France)
* 18 April 2018 (2018-04-18) (Belgium)

Running time

| 107 minutes[1]
Countries|

* France
* United Kingdom
* Belgium

Language| English
Budget| $13 million[2]
Box office| $24.6 million[3]

The Death of Stalin is a 2017 political satire black comedy film written and directed by Armando Iannucci and co-written by David Schneider and Ian Martin with Peter Fellows. Based on the French graphic novel La Mort de Staline (2010–2012), the film depicts the internal social and political power struggle among the members of the Soviet Politburo following the death of leader Joseph Stalin in 1953. The French-British-Belgian co-production stars an ensemble cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Dermot Crowley, Paul Chahidi, Adrian McLoughlin, Paul Whitehouse, and Jeffrey Tambor.

The film premiered on 8 September 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom by Entertainment One Films on 20 October 2017, in France by Gaumont on 4 April 2018, and in Belgium by September Film Distribution on 18 April 2018. It received critical acclaim and various accolades, including nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, one of which was for Outstanding British Film, and 13 British Independent Film Awards, four of which it won. There was fierce opposition to the film in Russia, where it was seen as "anti-Russian propaganda", and it was banned there, as well as in Kyrgyzstan, for allegedly mocking the Soviet past and making fun of the USSR.[4][5]

## Plot[edit]

On the night of 1 March 1953, Joseph Stalin calls the director of Radio Moscow and demands a recording of the live recital of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 that has just concluded. The performance was not recorded, so the director, not wanting to anger Stalin, hurriedly refills the now-half-empty auditorium, fetches a new conductor to replace the original one, who has fainted, and orders the orchestra to play again. Pianist Maria Yudina initially refuses to perform for the cruel dictator, but ultimately is persuaded to comply.

Meanwhile, Stalin is hosting a tense, but rowdy, gathering of members of the Central Committee at his home, the Kuntsevo Dacha. As Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov leaves, NKVD-head Lavrentiy Beria reveals to Nikita Khrushchev and Deputy Chairman Georgy Malenkov that Molotov is to be part of the latest purge. When the recording of the performance arrives, Stalin finds a note that Maria managed to hide in the record sleeve, in which she admonishes him and expresses her hope for his death. He reads it, laughs, and suffers a cerebral haemorrhage. Despite hearing him fall, Stalin's guards, fearful of being punished for disturbing him, do not enter his office.

Stalin's housemaid discovers him unconscious the next morning. The members of the Central Committee each learn about the situation through their own networks and rush to the dacha. Beria, who is the first to get there, finds Maria's note. Once Malenkov, Khrushchev, Lazar Kaganovich, Anastas Mikoyan, and Nikolai Bulganin arrive, the Committee finally decides to send for a team of doctors. Most of the best doctors in Moscow have been arrested for being part of an alleged plot, so the doctors who can be found are not very impressive. After a brief bout of terminal lucidity, Stalin dies. While the members of the Committee return to Moscow, Beria's order for the NKVD to take over the Soviet Army–held security postings across Moscow is carried out.

Beria and Khrushchev vie for the support of Stalin's children, Svetlana and her unstable, alcoholic brother Vasily, and Molotov. Beria has Molotov removed from the list of those to be rounded up, and has his wife released from prison. The Committee names Malenkov chairman. He is essentially a puppet of Beria, who further exerts control by hijacking Khrushchev's proposed reforms, such as releasing political prisoners and loosening clerical restrictions. Khrushchev is relegated to planning Stalin's funeral.

After Beria learns Khrushchev and Maria are casually acquainted, he threatens Khrushchev with Maria's note. Khrushchev, to create problems for the NKVD, reverses Beria's order to halt all transportation into Moscow. The Committee wants to blame junior NKVD officers when 1,500 arriving mourners are killed. Beria angrily dissents, believing that would amount to blaming him, and threatens his colleagues with documents detailing their involvement in various purges.

Marshal Georgy Zhukov, irate over the supplanting of the military by the NKVD, agrees to support Khrushchev in a coup against Beria, so long as it occurs after Stalin's funeral the next day and Khrushchev can get the rest of the Committee on board. With time running out, Khrushchev cannot get Malenkov to discuss his plan, but he tells everyone else that the decision is unanimous, and they commit themselves. Khrushchev gives Zhukov the green light, and the Soviet Army reclaims its posts from the NKVD. Zhukov, assisted by a group of soldiers led by Kiril Moskalenko, storms into a meeting of the Committee and arrests Beria.

Malenkov does not intervene and reluctantly signs Beria's death warrant, horrified at what he had done to his victims. At Beria's emergency trial, Khrushchev accuses him of counter-revolutionary activities, sexual assault, and pedophilia, and immediately declares him guilty after evidence of the final accusation is delivered by the Soviet army. Beria begs for his life but is summarily shot in the head, and Zhukov has his body burned in the courtyard. Despite Svetlana's protests, Khrushchev sends her to Soviet-occupied Vienna, while keeping Vasily in Russia, where he can be watched. He concurs with Kaganovich that Malenkov is too weak to lead.

In 1956, Maria is the soloist at another performance of Concerto No. 23. Khrushchev, having triumphed over the other members of the Committee to become the new leader of the Soviet Union, is in attendance. Brezhnev, who will succeed Khrushchev in 1964, eyes Khrushchev from his seat.

## Cast[edit]

(Note: At the time the film's events took place, many of the characters' real-life counterparts did not hold the positions listed in the film.)

* Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, 1st Secretary Moscow Committee
* Simon Russell Beale as Lavrenti Beria, Head of NKVD Security Forces
* Paddy Considine as Andreyev, director of Radio Moscow
* Rupert Friend as Vasily Stalin, Stalin's son
* Jason Isaacs as Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Head of the Soviet Army
* Olga Kurylenko as Maria Veniaminovna Yudina, a pianist
* Michael Palin as Vyacheslav Molotov, Foreign Secretary
* Andrea Riseborough as Svetlana Stalina, Stalin's daughter
* Dermot Crowley as Lazar Kaganovich, Minister for Labour
* Paul Chahidi as Nikolai Bulganin, Minister for Defence
* Adrian McLoughlin as Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the USSR
* Paul Whitehouse as Anastas Mikoyan, Minister for Trade
* Jeffrey Tambor as Georgy Malenkov, Deputy to Stalin
* Tom Brooke as Sergei, an audio engineer for Radio Moscow
* Justin Edwards as Spartak Sokolov (Conductor 1)
* Paul Ready as NKVD Officer Delov, who is tasked with finding the girl from the picture with Stalin
* Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Musician 1
* Nicholas Woodeson as Boris Bresnavich (Conductor 2)
* Sylvestra Le Touzel as Nina Khrushcheva, Khrushchev's wife
* Nick Sidi as NKVD Officer Bogdan Kobulov, Beria's right-hand man
* Jonny Phillips as NKVD Officer Pervak, who assists Stalin, and then Malenkov
* Alex Harvey-Brown as Soldier guarding Stalin's bedroom
* Tim Steed as Sergeant guarding Stalin's bedroom
* June Watson as Matryona Petrovna, Stalin's housemaid
* Daniel Tuite as NKVD Officer Sliminov, who tells Beria Stalin is ill
* Karl Johnson as Dr. Lukomsky, a retired doctor brought in to examine Stalin
* Cara Horgan as Lidiya Timashuk, who helps round up the doctors
* Dan Mersh as Ice Hockey Coach
* Richard Brake as Anatoly Tarasov, Vasily's assistant
* Eva Sayer as Young Waitress molested by Beria
* Diana Quick as Polina Molotova, Molotov's wife
* Jonathan Aris as Mezhnikov, the funeral arranger
* Gerald Lepkowski as Leonid Brezhnev, part of Zhukov's execution squad
* Luke D'Silva as Kirill Moskalenko, part of Zhukov's execution squad

The film's credits reveal that several other historical figures are depicted in the film in small roles, among them Zhou Enlai (played by Dave Wong) and Marshal Ivan Konev (played by Daniel Fearn).

## Production[edit]

During the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, it was announced that production on the film was set to begin in June, and that Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko, Timothy Dalton, Toby Kebbell, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, and Andrea Riseborough were in "advanced talks to join the project."[6] By the time filming started on June 20, Adrian McLoughlin and Paul Whitehouse had joined the cast, and Jason Isaacs had replaced Dalton as Georgy Zhukov, while Rupert Friend had replaced Kebbell as Vasily Stalin.[7][8][9] Production wrapped on 6 August 2016.[7]

Scenes were shot on location in Kyiv (exterior scenes and the exteriors of the Public Enemies building and the NKVD building), Moscow (the Red Gate Building), and the United Kingdom (Blythe House, Battersea Park, Mansion House, Fulham Town Hall, Goldsmiths' Hall, Shoreditch Town Hall, Freemasons' Hall, Alexandra Palace, and Hammersmith Town Hall in London, Mongewell Park in Oxfordshire, Black Park in Buckinghamshire,[10] and Wrest Park in Bedfordshire).[11] The film's score was composed by Christopher Willis, who tried to write in the style of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich.[12][13]

## Release and reception[edit]

### Box office[edit]

The Death of Stalin was screened in the Platform section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.[14] It was released in theatres by eOne Films in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2017, and by IFC Films in the United States on 9 March 2018.[15][16][1] The film grossed $8 million in the United States and Canada and $16.6 million in other territories (including $7.3 million in the UK), for a worldwide box office total of $24.6 million.[3]

### Critical response[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 254 reviews, with an average score of 8/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "The Death of Stalin finds director/co-writer Armando Iannucci in riotous form, bringing his scabrous political humor to bear on a chapter in history with painfully timely parallels."[17] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[18]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 5/5 stars, writing that "fear rises like gas from a corpse in Armando Iannucci's brilliant horror-satire" and that it "is superbly cast, and acted with icy and ruthless force by an A-list lineup. There are no weak links. Each has a plum role; each squeezes every gorgeous horrible drop."[19] Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald gave the film 4.5/5 stars, describing it as "a devastatingly funny dissection of power politics, stripping the mystique from it and those who worship it."[20] Donald Clarke of The Irish Times gave the film 4/5 stars, writing that it "starts in a state of mortal panic and continues in that mode towards its inevitably ghastly conclusion".[21]

Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph also gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "Depending on your point of view, The Death of Stalin is either a sly, wintry satire on Armando Iannucci's usual theme of squawking political idiocy, or an insidious attempt to destabilise the Russian establishment with relentless dagger-blows."[22] Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film 3.5/4 stars, writing: "Shifting eastwards from the Anglo-American japes of In the Loop and Veep, director/co-writer Armando Iannucci doesn’t stint on brutal truth — or lethal legend."[23]

Christopher Orr of The Atlantic praised the film's humour and performances and wrote that it "seems precisely attuned to the current moment: a capricious, unpredictable leader, basking in a cult of personality; the introduction of 'alternative facts'; the swift, party-wide swerves on subjects as various as negotiating with North Korea, paying off porn stars, and even Russian efforts to subvert a U.S. election."[24] Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote that the film was "ten times funnier, by my reckoning, than it has any right to be, and more riddled with risk than anything that Iannucci has done before, because it dares to meet outrage with outrage."[25]

Raphael Abraham of the Financial Times wrote: "As this coven of vampiric apparatchiks feasts on the remains of Stalinism, the unremitting blackness of the situation at times threatens a full comedy eclipse. But the discomfiting balancing act of humour and horror is precisely Iannucci's game—and only he could pull it off with such skill."[26] Thomas Walker, in The Objective Standard, agreed, adding that the film "dives deep into the psychology of those living under such a system and lays bare the self-destructive mind-set of those who grasp wildly for power."[27]

Matthew Norman of the Evening Standard gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "For all [Iannucci's] dream-team cast and assured direction, despite capturing the laughable sycophancy of the apparatchik the film isn't that funny."[28] Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "If only the end result were as funny as the idea that anyone would undertake a film about the turmoil surrounding the Soviet despot's demise."[29]

Former U.S. President Barack Obama included The Death of Stalin on a list of his favourite films of 2018.[30]

### Russia and former Soviet bloc[edit]

Nikolai Starikov, head of the Russian Great Fatherland Party, called The Death of Stalin an "unfriendly act by the British intellectual class", and part of an "anti-Russian information war".[5] In September 2017, the head of the Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Culture said Russian authorities were considering a ban on the film, alleging that it could be part of a "western plot to destabilise Russia by causing rifts in society".[31] Russian online newspaper Vzglyad called the film "a nasty sendup by outsiders who know nothing of our history".[5] The Communist Party of the Russian Federation called the film "revolting", and Alexander Yushchenko, a spokesman for the party, said it was an attempt to spark discontent.[31]

On 23 January 2018, two days before the film's scheduled release in Russia,[32] a screening was attended by State Duma MPs, representatives of the Russian Historical Society, members of the Ministry of Culture's Public Board, and film industry members. Two days later, the Ministry of Culture withdrew the film's distribution certificate. Several cinemas screened the film in late January, and, though they claimed they had not heard the exhibition license had been revoked, the Ministry sued these theatres.[4]

According to the results of a poll conducted by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTSIOM), 35% of Russians disapproved of the Ministry of Culture's decision to keep the film from Russian screens, while 30% supported the ban and 35% were neutral. 58% of Russians said they would be willing to watch the film in cinemas if the ban were lifted.[citation needed] According to Iannucci, by January of 2019, the film had been illegally downloaded 1.5 million times in Russia.[33]

A group of lawyers from Russia's Ministry of Culture; Era Zhukova, the daughter of Marshal Zhukov; cinematographer Nikita Mikhalkov; Vladimir Bortko; and Alexey Levykin, head of the Russian State Historical Museum,[34] petitioned Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky to withdraw the film's certification, saying: "The Death of Stalin is aimed at inciting hatred and enmity, violating the dignity of the Russian (Soviet) people, promoting ethnic and social inferiority. We are confident that the movie was made to distort our country's past so that the thought of the 1950s Soviet Union makes people feel only terror and disgust."[35] The authors said the film, set to be released on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, denigrated the memory of Russian World War II fighters, with the Russian national anthem accompanied by obscene expressions and offensive attitudes, and historically inaccurate decorations.[34]

In addition to Russia, the film was banned in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.[4] Armenia and Belarus were the only members of the Eurasian Economic Union to allow its release: in Armenia, it premiered in two cinemas in Yerevan on 25 January 2018, while, in Belarus, it premiered after an initial delay.[36] In Kazakhstan, the film was only screened at the Clique Festival.[37]

### Awards and honours[edit]

Year  | Award  | Category  | Subject  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

2017 | British Academy Film Award | Outstanding British Film | The Death of Stalin | Nominated  | [38]
Best Adapted Screenplay | Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, and David Schneider | Nominated
2017 | British Independent Film Awards | Best British Independent Film | The Death of Stalin | Nominated | [39]
Best Director | Armando Iannucci | Nominated
Best Screenplay | Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, & Ian Martin | Nominated
Best Supporting Actor | Simon Russell Beale | Won
Steve Buscemi | Nominated
Best Supporting Actress | Andrea Riseborough | Nominated
Best Production Design | Cristina Casali | Won
Best Costume Design | Suzie Harman | Nominated
Best Make Up & Hair Design | Nicole Stafford | Won
Best Music | Christopher Willis | Nominated
Best Casting | Sarah Crowe | Won
Best Editing | Peter Lambert | Nominated
Best Effects |  | Nominated
2018 | European Film Awards | Best Comedy | The Death of Stalin | Won  | [40]
2017 | Magritte Award | Best Foreign Film | Nominated | [41]

## Historical accuracy[edit]

Several academics have pointed out historical inaccuracies in The Death of Stalin. In response, Iannucci has said: "I'm not saying it's a documentary. It is a fiction, but it's a fiction inspired by the truth of what it must have felt like at the time. My aim is for the audience to feel the sort of low-level anxiety that people must have [experienced] when they just went about their daily lives at the time."[42]

Historian Richard Overy wrote that the film "is littered with historical errors", and called it "entertainment, but poor history". Among his examples in support of this are that:

* Molotov was not the foreign minister when Stalin died. He had been sacked in 1949, but became foreign minister again in the post-Stalin reshuffle.
* Marshal of the Soviet Union (not Field Marshal) Zhukov was a local field commander when Stalin died, having been exiled to the provinces due to Stalin's paranoid jealousy of him. Zhukov became deputy minister of defence in the post-Stalin government, but he was not the commander of the Soviet Army in March 1953.
* Khrushchev, not Malenkov, chaired the meeting to reorganise the government after Stalin's death.
* Beria was arrested three months after Stalin died, not almost simultaneously, and that was precipitated by the 1953 East German uprising, not a fictional massacre of mourners in Moscow, which is based on an incident in which 109 people were trampled to death during the funeral. He was executed six months after being arrested. Beria had not been head of the security forces since 1946.[43]
* Svetlana was not sent to Vienna. She remained in the Soviet Union working as an academic and translator before ultimately defecting to America in 1967 and becoming a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1978.

Overy wrote that those killed in the Great Purge or sent to Gulags "deserve a film that treats their history with greater discretion and historical understanding". Iannucci said he "chose to tone down real-life absurdity" to make the work more believable.[44][43]

The Radio Moscow portion of the film is a retelling of an apocryphal story first recorded in Solomon Volkov's book Testimony (1979), which Volkov claimed were the memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. However, in Testimony, Maria Yudina is awakened in the middle of the night in 1943 or 1944, not 1953, and brought in to record, and the recording brings Stalin to tears, moving him to pay Yudina 20,000 roubles in appreciation. The story served as the loose basis for The Stalin Sonata, a 1989 BBC radio play by David Zane Mairowitz. While, like the film, the original story has Yudina send a letter to Stalin, its contents are different, as she supposedly wrote to thank Stalin for the money, adding that she would donate it to the restoration of a church and would be praying for his sins to be forgiven.[45] While the real Yudina was fired on one occasion for her ideological disagreements with Stalin's regime, her family was not killed.

Dr. Lydia Timashuk is described in the film as a willing accomplice in the Doctors' plot, which is discussed as a past, rather than current, event, and is portrayed as an eager agent in the roundup of Moscow doctors for Stalin's care, who, in a deleted scene, dies in a mine field around Stalin's dacha after her sexual advances to Beria are rejected. In reality, she had no involvement in the events surrounding Stalin's death, and was an unwilling pawn in the Doctors' plot, after which she became embittered by the labels of informer and anti-Semite that followed her until her death in 1983.[46]

Bogdan Kobulov is depicted in the film as being shot dead during Beria's arrest by officers acting under orders given by Zhukov. In reality, he was arrested and executed alongside Beria months later.[47]

In the film, Vasily Stalin and Anatoly Tarasov are seen at a practice of the Soviet Union national ice hockey team, which has been depleted by a recent plane crash. There really was a plane crash in which 11 players on the VVS Moscow ice hockey team died, and star player Vsevolod Bobrov really did survive because he missed the flight, but the crash happened on 5 January 1950, more than three years before Stalin's death.

The NKVD was superseded by the MVD in 1946, almost seven years before the death of Stalin.[48]

Samuel Goff of the Department of Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge, though opining that the film's historical discrepancies could be justified as helping to focus the drama, wrote that turning Beria into "an avatar of the obscenities of the Stalinist state" missed the chance to say "anything about the actual mechanisms of power", and argued that Iannucci's approach to satire was not transferable to something like Stalinism, and the film is "fundamentally ill-equipped to locate the comedy inherent to Stalinism, missing marks it doesn't know it should be aiming for."[49]

## See also[edit]

* Red Monarch

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b "The Death of Stalin (15)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
2. ^ Gant, Charles (19 December 2019). "Armando Iannucci on 'David Copperfield': "it's a celebration of what I feel Britain is"". Screen Daily. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
3. ^ a b "The Death of Stalin (2017)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
4. ^ a b c Kozlov, Vladimir (23 February 2018). "Russia's Culture Ministry Sues Movie Theater for Screening Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
5. ^ a b c Walker, Shaun (14 October 2017). "In Russia, nobody's laughing at Iannucci's The Death of Stalin". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
6. ^ Jaafar, Ali (12 May 2016). "All-Star Cast Boards Armando Iannucci's 'The Death Of Stalin' – Cannes". Deadline Hollywood.
7. ^ a b Jaafar, Ali (20 June 2016). "Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin Starts Shoot, Rupert Friend Joins Cast, Closes Deals". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
8. ^ "The Death of Stalin Trailer Arrives". Den of Geek. 11 August 2017. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
9. ^ "Armando Ianucci is adapting The Death of Stalin". www.liveforfilm.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
10. ^ "The Death of Stalin (2017) - Filming & production - IMDb". IMDb.
11. ^ "The Bedfordshire mansion that's a hit with film and music video producers". 30 April 2022.
12. ^ Ritman, Alex (9 March 2018). "'Death of Stalin' Composer on Resurrecting Soviet Musical Greats for Armando Iannucci's Satire". The Hollywood Reporter.
13. ^ Needham, Jack (15 December 2017). "Armando Iannucci on classical music and soundtracking The Death of Stalin". The Vinyl Factory.
14. ^ Kay, Jeremy (3 August 2017). "The Death of Stalin to open Toronto Film Festival Platform programme". Screen Daily. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
15. ^ Hipes, Patrick (11 February 2017). "Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin Acquired by IFC Films – Berlin". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
16. ^ Evans, Greg (5 October 2017). "Death of Stalin Author Says Trumpian Comedies Must Wait for Final Tweet – NY Comic-Con". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
17. ^ "The Death of Stalin (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
18. ^ "The Death of Stalin Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
19. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (9 September 2017). "The Death of Stalin review – Armando Iannucci has us tremblin' in the Kremlin". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
20. ^ Hall, Sandra (26 March 2018). "The farce and the horror of Stalin". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
21. ^ Clarke, Donald (20 October 2017). "The Death of Stalin: Mortal panic with a ghastly conclusion". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
22. ^ Robey, Tim (19 October 2017). "The Death of Stalin review: Armando Iannucci makes a delicious mockery of Russian history". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
23. ^ "Review | A dark dance in Foxtrot, deadly schemes in The Death of Stalin both reel us in: Reel Brief reviews". The Toronto Star. 15 March 2018. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
24. ^ Orr, Christopher (16 March 2018). "'The Death of Stalin' Is a Wicked Farce". The Atlantic. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
25. ^ Lane, Anthony (9 March 2018). ""The Death of Stalin" Dares to Make Evil Funny". The New Yorker. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
26. ^ Abraham, Raphael (16 February 2018). "The Death of Stalin – 'balancing act of humour and horror'". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
27. ^ "The Death of Stalin by Armando Iannucci". The Objective Standard. 28 August 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
28. ^ Norman, Matthew (20 October 2017). "The Death of Stalin review: Carry on Kremlin". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
29. ^ Debruge, Peter (8 September 2017). "Film Review: 'The Death of Stalin'". Variety. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
30. ^ Loughery, Clarisse (28 December 2018). "Obama lists favourite films of 2018 including Roma, Black Panther and The Death of Stalin". The Independent. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
31. ^ a b Bennetts, Marc (20 September 2017). "Russia considers ban on Armando Iannucci's film The Death of Stalin". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
32. ^ Kozlov, Vladimir (16 November 2017). "Russian Death of Stalin Distributor Plans January Release". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
33. ^ "Armando Iannucci on Death of Stalin Success, Censorship and Why He Ditched His Trump Film Idea". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 January 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
34. ^ a b "Деятели культуры обратились в министерство с просьбой провести экспертизу фильма "Смерть Сталина" (на предмет соответствия законодательству РФ)" [Cultural figures appealed to the Ministry with a request to conduct an examination of the film The Death of Stalin] (in Russian). Russian Ministry of Culture. 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
35. ^ "Russian Culture Ministry yanks distribution certificate for The Death of Stalin". TASS. 23 January 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
36. ^ "Фильм "Смерть Сталина" все-таки покажут. Билеты уже продают" [Film The Death of Stalin will still be shown. Tickets are already on sale]. citydog.by (in Russian). 5 February 2018. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
37. ^ "Armenia only EEU-member to screen The Death of Stalin". PanARMENIAN.Net. 29 January 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
38. ^ "Bafta Film Awards 2018: The winners in full". BBC News. 18 February 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
39. ^ "British Independent Film Awards 2017: Full list of winners led by 'Lady Macbeth,' 'The Death of Stalin,' 'God's Own Country'". Goldderby.com. 10 December 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
40. ^ Green, Jennifer (15 December 2018). "'Cold War' Wins Big at 2018 European Film Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
41. ^ Roxborough, Scott (14 January 2019). "'Girl,' 'Above the Law' Lead Belgium Film Award Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
42. ^ Tobias, Scott (10 March 2018). "Armando Iannucci on Death of Stalin, Political Satire and Trump's Funeral". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
43. ^ a b Overy, Richard (18 October 2017). "Carry on up the Kremlin: how The Death of Stalin plays Russian roulette with the truth". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
44. ^ White, Adam (19 October 2017). "The Death of Stalin: what really happened on the night that forever changed Soviet history?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
45. ^ Echo of Moscow. Interview with Marina Drozdova, 20 September 2009. «Иосиф Виссарионович, я благодарю вас за деньги, спасибо, я их пожертвовала на реставрацию храма, буду молиться за вас, чтобы Господь простил вам ваши грехи» [Joseph Vissarionovich, I thank you for the money, thank you, I donated it for the restoration of the church, I will pray for you that the Lord would forgive you your sins.]
46. ^ Как был создан миф о Л.Ф. Тимашук?  (How the myth about L.F.Timasuk was created?); from: Бобров, О. Е., "Медицина (нравы, судьбы, бесправие)", Донецк : Регина, 2004, pp. 93–102
47. ^ "Большие братья". Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
48. ^ Statiev, Alexander (2010). The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521768337.
49. ^ Goff, Samuel (23 October 2017). "The Death of Stalin: a black comic masterpiece? Don't make me laugh". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 31 December 2017.

## External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Death of Stalin.

* Official website
* The Death of Stalin at IMDb
* The Death of Stalin at Box Office Mojo

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Armando Iannucci

TV|

* The Day Today (1994)
* Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge (1994)
* The Saturday Night Armistice (1995–99)
* I'm Alan Partridge (1997–02)
* The Armando Iannucci Shows (2001)
* Gash (2003)
* 2004: The Stupid Version (2004)
* The Thick of It (2005–12)
* Time Trumpet (2006)
* Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge (2010–16)
* Veep (2012–19)
* Avenue 5 (2020–22)
* The Franchise (TBA)

Films|

* Clinton: His Struggle with Dirt (1998)
* Tube Tales (segment "Mouth", 1999)
* In the Loop (2009)
* Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (written only, 2013)
* The Death of Stalin (2017)
* The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

Other work|

* On the Hour (radio)
* Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge (radio)
* I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan (novel)
* Dr. Strangelove (play)

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Empire Award for Best Comedy

* Team America: World Police (2006)
* Little Miss Sunshine (2007)
* Hot Fuzz (2008)
* Son of Rambow (2009)
* In the Loop (2010)
* Four Lions (2011)
* The Inbetweeners Movie (2012)
* Ted (2013)
* Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2014)
* Paddington (2015)
* Spy (2016)
* The Greasy Strangler (2017)
* The Death of Stalin (2018)

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European Film Award for Best Comedy

* Love Is All You Need (2013)
* The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (2014)
* A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2015)
* A Man Called Ove (2016)
* The Square (2017)
* The Death of Stalin (2018)
* The Favourite (2019)
* The Big Hit (2020)
* Ninjababy (2021)
* The Good Boss (2022)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

*[Ref.]: References
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