Toward the end of his reign, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guinness) intends to hand over his throne to the steadfast soldier Livius (Stephen Boyd). Before he can enact his intentions, a loyalist to Commodus. ...

"The Death of Stalin", which is directed by Armando Iannucc, is a brilliant horror-satire film about Kremlin intrigues following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.

It is somewhat a fact-based film, because it tries its best to recreate the events around the time of Stalin's death. 

The same night in which the Soviet dictator asks for a recording of a live concert, Stalin has a stroke alone in his office. Initially, even though everyone is obviously terrified of saying out loud that he is dead, the Central Committee starts to put in motion the laws regarding succession.

The great strength of this movie is its excellent cast. Michael Palin as Molotov is outstanding, the pathetic functionary who has long since sacrificed his marriage; Steve Buscemi is a nervy Khrushchev,; Andrea Riseboroug is compelling as Stalin’s daughter Svetlana. The hilarious Jeffrey Tambor as the vain Malenkov who is next in line to succeed Stalin , and so is Rupert Friend as Stalin’s son Vasily, who is a barely controllable drunk . Jason Isaacs gets laughs as the truculent war hero Zhukov.

On the whole, this political satire film has a clever script with genuinely funny moments. Besides, it is hugely entertaining as well as intriguing in showing us the dark side of life during the Soviet Union Regime and so called the Great Terror of its politics. Talking of settings and costumes, they are meticulous in detail and evocative.

For all these reasons, it is not difficult to understand why this funny dissection of power politics is a masterpiece for all lovers of “black comedy” like me.

Marjane is still a child when the coup occurs, and through her eyes we see how the country is affected by changes resulting from the replacement of a Persian authoritarian pro-western monarchy to an Islamic authoritarian republic. Her leftist family, who first campaigned for the new government, later realised that their privileges were going to disappear and women's role in society was going to be completely affected. On top of that, the Iran-Iraq war starts, and poverty, famine and shortages will perturb the nation even more. The spectator becomes involved in that reality throughout the personal memories, anecdotes, etc. of this little rebel who loves Bruce Lee. It is a coming of age story that contains powerful scenes that show the crudity of reality and also the beauty of being alive.

What makes this film so special is that Marjane brings her entire vital experience into it in a simple, direct and inspiring manner. The lo-fi animation uses techniques of expressionism to reflect the different feelings of the protagonist and the soundtrack contributes to create the atmosphere. But I must confess that, when the character grows up and goes to Europe, the film loses some of its appeal.

I highly recommend the film to anybody who wants to become aware  of different realities,  cultures, rules and all the nonsense of modern living, but simultaneously, always taking into account that Marjane has her own and subjective point of view of this enormous and complicated world.