In fact, the remorseless cleansings and uneasy jockeying to stay on the right side of the shifting ideological sands are depressingly familiar throughout history.
Treating the paralysis that surrounded Stalin in his final years and the panic at his death as a pitch black joke seems a reasonable approach and The Death of Stalin does contain some solid jokes. However, the sheer unending horror of the source material overwhelms the gallows humour which, when you think of it, is as it should be.
So while this is not a film to leave you whistling a merry tune, it is worth seeing because it brings a horrible period of history to life and gives you a sense of the dangerous game people were forced into playing, without being unremittingly grim.
If I was teaching 20th-century history to high school students, I would want them to see this film, so it's a pity it is rated R16.
Death of Stalin
Director: Armando Ianucci
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Palin, Adrian McLaughlin, Dermot Crowley, Paul Whitehouse, Paul Chahidi, Olga Kurylenko, Paddy, Considine, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend, Diana Quick, Jason Isaacs.
Rating: (16) ★★★★
