Filmmaker Armando Iannucci, the satirist who created Veep, aims his sharp comic scalpel at one of the darkest periods in world history. In the days following Joseph Stalin’s collapse in 1953, his ministers are confused and tussling for control, with their one common trait being their desperate desire to remain alive. Among them are Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), Beria (Simon Russell Beale), Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), Molotov (Michael Palin), Zhukov (Jason Isaacs) and Mikoyan (Paul Whitehouse). Iannucci milks absurdist humor from the totalitarian setting, forging a balance between the funny and the unnerving. By the way, this movie has already been banned in Russia! With Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend, Paddy Considine, Olga Kurylenko. Writer: Fabien Nuri. Director: Armando Iannucci. (UK/France 2017) 107 min.