The Death of Stalin Page #17

---

Decorum, please..

BERIA:

Faster, you SNAIL.

MOLOTOV:

(to Vasily, trying to be

both quiet and loud)

SHHHHHH! SHHHHHUSHH!

Pursued by the NKVD, Vasily rushes up some stairs.

Beria breaks from the line, speed-walks until he's pretty

much out of public view then breaks into a run and heads up

the staircase. Khrushchev follows.

134 INT. HALL OF COLUMNS - SMALL DIGNITARIES ROOM - DAY 134

A quiet holding area. Some Communist LEADERS including ZHOU

ENLAI, with their TRANSLATORS.

Vasily rushes in.

VASILY:

Friends! There has been a terrible

crime!

Zhou EnLai's translator translates for the Chinese leader.

VASILY (CONT’D)

My father - they killed him.

They got a child to cut out his

brain and send it to Washington!

20 May 2016 Draft 10 89.

Zhou Enlai's TRANSLATOR stops, then carries on.

VASILY (CONT’D)

They’re ruthless monsters and

sodomites!

The translator is trying to get every nuance.

An NKVD officer grabs Vasily and pull him away.

VASILY (CONT’D)

...sucking the c*cks and balls of

New York Zionist queers in

petticoats...

The translator makes sure he does the insult justice.

135 INT. HALL OF COLUMNS - LANDING OR ADJOINING ROOM - DAY 135

The NKVD wrestle Vasily to the ground. Beria and Khrushchev

arrive.

VASILY:

I’ll make sure you all stand trial

and get garotted by your own

lookalikes in Red Square...

BERIA:

Vasily. It's me.

Beria kneels beside Vasily who tries to spit at him, but he's

lying down, so the spit just drops back onto his face.

VASILY:

Syphilitic cannibals! Zoo animals..

BERIA:

I know about the dead hockey team.

The pretence. The denial.

Vasily stops struggling. He's accepted defeat.

VASILY:

Freak weather.

(calmly)

I want to make a speech at the

funeral.

BERIA:

(To Khrushchev)

He wants to make a speech at the

funeral.

KHRUSHCHEV:

Oh, MORE good news.

20 May 2016 Draft 10 90.

The Dignitaries from inside the room quietly file out, and

past Vasily and Co.

VASILY.

I'm his son.

(flaring up again,

struggling)

Let me speak, you howling chimps...

Zhukhov appears, pushes Vasily into the now-vacated

dignitaries room and punches Vasily hard across the face,

knocking out a tooth. Vasily falls to the floor, unconscious.

Zhukhov pockets the tooth.

ZHUKHOV:

I'll stick it under my pillow

tonight. May even make a ruble.

He smiles at Beria - that's how you sort things round here.

Beria notices that Svetlana's watching a few yards away,

distressed.

BERIA:

Lana! He's my godson. I won't let

anything happen to him.

She turns and hurries off.

SVETLANA:

Something has already happened to

him!

BERIA:

Lana!

(to an NKVD man)

Tell her I'll be with her in a

moment.

The NKVD man sets off after Svetlana.

KHRUSHCHEV:

(grabs Beria, and makes

sure no-one else is

around in the room)

Not yet!

(close, angry)

You’re bringing the Church back?

What next? Are the Romanovs coming?

BERIA:

Don’t be hysterical. We are in a

new reality.

20 May 2016 Draft 10 91.

KHRUSHCHEV (CONT’D)

Well don’t you sound fancy? You

locked half the nation up. Beat

them. Raped them. Killed them.

BERIA:

Yes, and now I'm releasing them. I

put so many in jail, there are so

many to let go. You won’t believe

how many will be free. Millions!

The revolutions continues...

KHRUSHCHEV:

Not true. You're just doing it to

gain power. You bend and crack the

truth, like it was a human body.

BERIA:

Oh, you want the “truth”? Let’s

start with you calling the

blameless Polina Molotova a Zionist

spy. In her own apartment. I heard

you. And so did my men.

He taps his ear to indicate they were listening.

KHRUSHCHEV:

But she was found guilty. You FOUND

her guilty.

BERIA:

Past tense. In those “old days” you

pine for, Nicky, that dissonance

would get you shot.

Khrushchev starts to speak, Beria cuts him off.

BERIA (CONT’D)

More truth:
you called that slut

doctor Timashuk to Stalin's

bedside...

KHRUSHCHEV:

That was your idea!

BERIA:

You initiated it. Again, there are

recordings. A woman who denounced

thousands of innocent doctors.

Khrushchev is thrown.

KHRUSHCHEV:

We ALL signed off on those arrests.

BERIA:

You're old regime, Khrushchev.

Counter-revolutionary.

20 May 2016 Draft 10 92.

(MORE)

The man who f***ed up the flowers

and invited his bit-on-the-side

whore to play at the funeral. Even

though she swore to kill Stalin.

Who’s now dead.

KHRUSHCHEV:

What are you talking about?

Beria hands him Maria's note.

BERIA:

She wanted Stalin dead and she

knows your family. It's lucky we

now live in the new Soviet Union or

you and your wife and children

would now be a pile of dust on the

floor of a crematorium toilet.

Khrushchev reads the note. The colour drains from his face.

136 INT. HALL OF COLUMNS - STAIRS - DAY. 136

Khrushchev comes back down the stairs and into the Hall of

Columns.

He sees some bishops in the distance, calls to an NKVD guard.

KHRUSHCHEV:

Get those boyfriends of Christ out

of my sight!

We see the Bishops being moved away. There is some applause

coming from a section of the queue.

KHRUSHCHEV (CONT’D)

I see they agree with me.

NKVD GUARD:

No, Comrade Khrushchev, it’s

because they’ve spotted him.

He gestures over to the applauding section of the crowd. We

can just make out Beria walking past, enjoying the applause.

KHRUSHCHEV:

Start the trains. The people can

come to Moscow!

Meanwhile Beria is enjoying his moment. He’s with Kubulov.

BERIA:

The revolution continues!

(to Kubulov)

Now start the other one.

CUT TO:

20 May 2016 Draft 10 93.

BERIA (CONT'D)

137 EXT. MOSCOW STREETS - DAY. 137

A black maria pulls up. Several confused PRISONERS, some

beaten, some of whom we saw arrested earlier, get out. The

van drives off.

CUT TO:

138 EXT. RAILWAY TRACKS - NIGHT 138

The provincial train TRACKS we saw earlier. Crowds are camped

in front of the NKVD and Fedin with pictures of Stalin,

candles, flowers etc.

A whistle blows.

TRAIN GUARD:

For Moscow! Train to Moscow!

People rush forward.

CUT TO:

139 INT. MOSCOW APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT 139

The distinctive design we saw earlier. The woman turns away

from the window. She's heard something. The middle-aged man

who was arrested has returned. He's been beaten.

She rushes over and hugs him. His son sits awkwardly in a

chair:
it's the young man who betrayed him to the NKVD.

CUT TO:

140 INT./EXT. TRAIN ON PLATFORM - DAY 140

CROWDS clamber onto the train, including the FAMILY WITH TWO

CHILDREN we saw earlier. Excitement, people clambering on

board. Train packed full.

141 INT. LUBYANKA - PRISON CELL - DAY 141

A PRISONER and the NKVD Interrogator from sc 73. The cell

door opens and a SOLDIER points a gun. The Interrogator moves

to allow a clearer shot at the Prisoner. But the Soldier

shoots the Interrogator. The Prisoner’s relieved moan. The

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote