The Death of Stalin

The Death of Stalin is a 2017 political satire black comedy film written and directed by Armando Iannucci and co-written by David Schneider and Ian Martin with Peter Fellows. Based on the French graphic novel La Mort de Staline (2010–2012), the film depicts the internal social and political power struggle among the members of the Soviet Politburo following the death of leader Joseph Stalin in 1953. The French-British-Belgian co-production stars an ensemble cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Dermot Crowley, Paul Chahidi, Adrian McLoughlin, Paul Whitehouse, and Jeffrey Tambor. The film premiered on 8 September 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom by Entertainment One Films on 20 October 2017, in France by Gaumont on 4 April 2018, and in Belgium by September Film Distribution on 18 April 2018. It received critical acclaim and various accolades, including nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, one of which was for Outstanding British Film, and 13 British Independent Film Awards, four of which it won. There was fierce opposition to the film in Russia, where it was seen as "anti-Russian propaganda", and it was banned there, as well as in Kyrgyzstan, for allegedly mocking the Soviet past and making fun of the USSR.

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15.3s
Take your seats. Take your fucking seats. Don't worry, nobody's gonna get killed, I promise you. This is just a musical emergency. Take your seats. That's it. Nobody be alarmed. It's fine. Sit down! Do not defy me! Sit your arses down!

The Death of Stalin

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17.4s
Top me up. Everybody drinks. As I was saying, we had this 12-year-old scout. His whole family was wiped out by the Krauts. But before that he taught us this trick. He taught us this trick. He taught us this trick. If you stick somebody's little finger in a glass of water while they're sleeping, they wet themselves.

The Death of Stalin

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4.4s
Here, what next? You stick a bar of chocolate in their pocket, they shit their pants?

The Death of Stalin

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8.5s
But it's biology, Chief. We did it to Polnikov in Stalingrad. But, anyway, "shit your pants", that's great. Whatever became of Polnikov?

The Death of Stalin

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2.6s
You wanna know where fucking Polnikov is?

The Death of Stalin

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1.2s
You wanna go there?

The Death of Stalin

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2.3s
I love that grenade story.

The Death of Stalin

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13.1s
- Oh, is there one in your pocket? - No, no, come on. No, not again! No, don't you... God damn it! Caught red-handed. Well, I would die for the Motherland!

The Death of Stalin

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2.5s
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

The Death of Stalin

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1.5s
Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

The Death of Stalin

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1.6s
Take this, you bastards!

The Death of Stalin

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4.3s
All right, let's get going. Time for a cowboy movie. Who's in my posse?

The Death of Stalin

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3.2s
Here we go. He rides out, he gets shot off his horse.

The Death of Stalin

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2.7s
Adios.

The Death of Stalin

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3.2s
Thank you very much. It's gonna be okay. Sit where you sat before.

The Death of Stalin

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2.2s
Right, what do you think?

The Death of Stalin

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3s
Well, half the audience have gone. The acoustic will be very lively.

The Death of Stalin

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13.3s
Go and get some more people in off the street. Fat ones, so we don't need as many. Really? How fat? I could get my wife. She'd deaden the acoustic. Comrades... Comrades, shut up!

The Death of Stalin

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21.7s
I have wonderful news. Comrade Stalin loved tonight's concerto and would like a recording of it right away, which we don't have, for reasons that are myriad and complex and... But meanwhile the concerto we just played will be played again. And this time we will record it and we will applaud it.

The Death of Stalin

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1.5s
Yes. Yes.

The Death of Stalin