Attention comrades! The first trailer for Armando Iannucci’s Soviet satire The Death of Stalin has been unveiled.
Adapted by Iannucci, Ian Martin and David Schneider from Fabien Nury’s graphic novel of the same name, the film depicts the frenzied political manoeuvrings that transpired in the aftermath of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953. The film stars a host of prominent British and American actors as Stalin’s underlings, including Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, Jeffrey Tambor as Stalin’s heir apparent Georgy Malenkov, Michael Palin as Vyacheslav Molotov, Jason Isaacs as Georgy Zhukov, Simon Russell Beale as Lavrentiy Beria and Homeland star Rupert Friend as Stalin’s son Vasily.
The film is the first Iannucci has directed since 2009’s In the Loop, which was a big-screen spin-off from his acclaimed political satire The Thick of It. In a five-star Guardian review Peter Bradshaw described the film as “relentlessly funny – vicious and delicious”. Iannucci also created the HBO political satire Veep and the BBC comedies The Day Today and I’m Alan Partridge.
The Death of Stalin will be screened at the Toronto film festival next month, before being released in UK cinemas on 20 October.
