Based on a graphic novel of all things
(it is available on line to read), this wonderfully dark absurdist comic
film has a thread of underlying dread right beneath the surface that slowly
rises to the top like toxic sludge from the swamp. This covers the period
from the day of Stalin's death to the power struggle that takes place in
the months afterwards (though compressed to a few days in the film). The
main characters involved - Beria, Malenkov, Molotov, Khrushchev - are all
portrayed as paranoid, silly, gloomy, ambitious, murderous and terrified
- in a very dark humorous at times Keystone cop manner. But you should not
forget that these little men in big suits were psychopathic mass murderers.
All of them had enormous blood on their hands in the various purges that
occurred in the 1930's to the present day (1953). In those days you either
purged or were purged.
For the most part this is all very accurate
historically - after Stalin dies in March 1953 from a stroke there is a chaotic
free for all between these men to both gain power but also survive - eventually
with them targeting Beria, who was the biggest killer of them all as head
of the security apparatus NKVD. Khrushchev (played by Steve Buscemi) is in
the middle of this as he tries to forge an alliance with Malenkov (Jeffrey
Tambor), Molotov (Michael Palin) and Field Marshall Zhukov who had been a
hero in WWII.
An interesting note is that the female
pianist in the opening hilarious section also was based on a true character
and a similar true incident. Maria Yudina was a Russian Jewish dissenter
who throughout her life pushed back against Stalin - Dr. Zhivago was read
in her apartment by Pasternak. She actually did play Mozart's Piano Concerto
#23 on the radio which Stalin heard and wanted a copy of - but it took place
in the 1940's - not the day of Stalin's death - this was a touch of inspiration
of the graphic novelists - Frenchmen Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin.
After the film ends, Khrushchev in a coup
takes power two years later against Malenkov, Malenkov tries a counter coup
two years after that but fails and is sent far far east to spend the remainder
of his life. Molotov was a die hard Stalinist even though Stalin had sent
his wife to the Gulags and fought against the reforms that Khrushchev initiated
but he too was put aside to live his life in obscurity. Molotov was the guy
behind the pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. Maria
Yudina (played by ex-Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) passed away in 1970.
This was a very good funny film about a
subject that is incredibly obscure to most Americans living today and that
alone makes me love it. Not surprisingly, it has been banned in Russia.
