Stalin's dirty old men in deadly party quarrel after his death

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2018)

If this is supposed to be a comedy it isn't funny. I can well understand those who couldn't stand it more than 11 minutes. It's a bitter caricature all the way of the arguments of power, the humour is darker than black and not humourous at all, and all laughters are strained to grotesqueness in morbid hypocrisy, but that is probably how it was. It all makes a very realistic impression and couldn't perhaps be staged more realistically without the satirical caricature touch. The main factor that turns them all into ridiculous parodies is that they all speak cockney, all except the pianist, who makes the deepest impression of all and who introduces the morbid farce, the one serious person in the context.
Although they all constantly speak in a foul loud-mouthed way without listening to each other and almost merely making a lot of noise and fuss, it is very well acted, and what saves the film is the fine choice of music. Music introduces the spectacle and also gives it a worthy exist. It's brilliant entertainment all the way, although all laughs get stuck in the throat. Michael Palin from Monty Python is the best and most convincing actor, and the actor who plays Krushchev has a startling resemblance to Putin. Perhaps it was intentional? I heard the film was forbidden in Russia, and a cinema owner who showed it anyway was prosecuted for it. Putin has tried to exonerate Satlin, so this political portrait of an active establishment in a superpower 65 years ago could be scaringly up to date.