Armando Iannucci

Armando Iannucci has long had a genius for the absurdity of global politics, from his work on the satirical news program On the Hour in the 1990s, to the British ministry antics of The Thick of It, to his HBO series Veep. But his new film, The Death of Stalin, set amidst the immediate and ridiculous aftermath of the Soviet leader’s death in 1953, comes at a time when the political situation in America and abroad has become all too absurd. Iannucci discusses the current presidential administration, as well as the way in which humor can naturally arise from terror, in this bonus episode of The Film Comment Podcast. The Death of Stalin opens today in the U.K. and will be released in the U.S. early next year by IFC Films.