The Death of Stalin – Armando Iannucci’s ‘comedy of terrors’

It’s billed as a “comedy of terrors” –  a new film about the mass fear, the hysteria and the political chaos which followed the death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. It doesn’t sound like the ideal subject matter for satire, but Armando Iannucci has achieved just that, basing his film, The Death of Stalin, on a French comic book which reveals the absurdity which surrounded the power struggles of the time.

He speaks about the film and the echoes of tyranny and cults of personality which linger to this day.