The Death of Stalin

The Death of Stalin (2017) is a sharp political satire you can watch online on iFILM. Director Armando Iannucci — the creator of The Thick of It and Veep — adapted a French graphic novel about the scramble for power inside the Kremlin in the days following Stalin's death in March 1953.

The moment the dictator hits the floor, his inner circle stops grieving and starts maneuvering. Steve Buscemi plays Khrushchev as a calculating survivor in a roomful of calculating survivors. Simon Russell Beale brings a cold, reptilian menace to Beria. Jason Isaacs shows up as Marshal Zhukov with the swagger of a rock guitarist and zero patience for committee politics. Nobody uses a Russian accent — that's the point.

Iannucci built the film on documented events: the scrambled phone call protocols, the doctors shot before anyone could treat the dying man, the terror on every functionary's face as they tried to guess which way the wind was now blowing. Banned from release in Russia. Stream The Death of Stalin (2017) online on iFILM.