I Watch Films: The Death Of Stalin

 

The Death Of Stalin

It’s 1953 and Stalin, General Secretary of the Party and all-but-absolute ruler of the Soviet Union has a cheery evening with other Central Committee members in his dacha (country house). On the way out there is another list of people to be purged; Beria, the Minister for State Security confides that Minister for Foreign Affairs Molotov will be arrested.

Stalin requests a recording of a concerto that was on the radio; they didn’t record it so they have to play it again, the soloist putting in a note declaring Stalin a tyrant. Stalin finds it, laughs, then collapses with an aneurism. No one disturbs him until morning.

There follows a scramble for power, with non-entity Malenkov, the deputy general secretary, taking the chair of the Central Committee. However it’s Beria who acts, stopping the current arrests and arresting other people, replacing the Red Army with NKVD troops throughout Moscow, stopping the trains. It’s clear to everyone that Beria will be in charge… unless someone else acts.

Beria is given several ministries, while Khruschev is put in charge of arrangements for the funeral. Of course both of them have difficulty getting things done, the sheer inertia of a country difficult to move in a short period of time. Molotov having got a reprieve is willing to join Khruschev’s plan to overthrow Beria, though they are both paranoid about his apartment being bugged; when Beria unexpectedly arrives there Molotov denounces his wife who has been arrested, only for Beria to release her.

It's a black comedy, it’s a satire. A group of middle aged men (played by a stack of legendary comic actors) find themselves having to deal with the power vacuum at the top of the country. It’s violent, troops shooting people, arresting them in the middle of the night, the coup having to be swift and bloody. And also unanimous, everyone agrees with Khruschev that they need to stop Beria before he gets total power and purges them all. But they won’t do it unless everybody backs it, and Malenkov keeps avoiding being pinned down on it (or any other point).

Watch This: Pitch black comedy that is uncomfortably close to real events
Don’t Watch This: Ruthless men bumble about trying to figure out how to kill each other while hundreds of less elevated people die