‘Veep’ creator premieres film at Toronto festival
TORONTO — How different was Stalin-era 1950s Russia to the Washington, D.C., of “Veep”? For “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci, there were more similarities than you might think.
In his second feature film, “The Death of Stalin,” some quite funny people (Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, Simon Russell Beale) play some of the more fear-inducing names in 20th century history. When Stalin dies, it’s a mad rush for power (Buscemi’s Nikita Khrushchev comes running in his pajamas) and a race for the mantle of “reformer” after years of purges, murders and imprisonments.
Yet the satirical ballet of hapless government strivers will be familiar to those who know Ianuncci’s other farces (“In the Loop,” “The Thick of It”). It’s just that the consequences for losing step with the party line are a tad direr.
“If you say the wrong thing or back the wrong person, you might be out of power,” said Iannucci in an interview. “But being outside of power can mean being dead, so there’s that added tension. You don’t just retire and open up a library. You’re shot.”
“The Death of Stalin,” which premiered Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival, is Iannucci’s first post-“Veep” project. He departed after the first four seasons. When it was announced Thursday that the acclaimed HBO season will end with its seventh season, he applauded David Mandel for “bringing her safely home.”
But while “Death of Stalin” might be a kind of comrade to “Veep,” it also charts a different path for Iannucci. The movie, he feels, resonates particularly in the Donald Trump era, and, more than any of Iannucci’s previous work, connects insular political maneuvering with its often tragic results for the populace.