Stalin | Cinephellas

Who Gets to Call it History?

Director Piotr Szkopiak Talks Justice, Katyn, and The Last Witness

Director Piotr Szkopiak on the set of The Last Witness

Photo courtesy of Momentum Pictures

History is written by the victors and those with power. Significant events in the lives of ordinary citizens often go missing from news reports, calendars, and textbooks. But May 11th, 2018 was a monumental date. The Last Witness, Polish-Anglo writer and director Piotr Szkopiak’s second film, opened in Poland that day. Red carpet arrivals and press coverage mattered little compared to the importance of Szkopiak’s mother being present to watch the film.

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by Old King Clancy

With The Thick Of It and it’s cinematic partner, In The Loop, covering UK politics, and Veep covering the US, it can be argued that nobody has a better, or funnier, grasp on the ineptitude of politicians than Armando Iannucci. Now with his latest film, The Death Of Stalin, Iannucci tackles historical Russian politics to show that no matter where or when, politicians were and are idiots!

Loosely based on the true story of the Russian governments reaction to the death of Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin), the film finds the Russian cabinet – Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), First Secretary Nikita Kruschev (Steve Buschemi), head of secret police Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale) and Deputy Premier Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin) – coming together to help guide the country through a period of mourning. Nikita sees the opportunity to ease up on Stalin’s torturous rule and induct a more liberal approach to the Russian Government, however, Beria starts mobilizing his Police Force to manipulate Malenkov into giving him more power, and seizing the chair for himself.

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