Jason Isaacs stole every scene he was in (and I wish there were more). Representing the Red Army at the buffet [grin]. Zhukov sounded like an interesting character. I got a lot of laughs out of the film, but in general it was a very dark film about horrifyingly and casually cruel people. But very entertaining, which is sort of disturbing.

The pianist Maria Yudina was real, but the incident is unsubstantiated, though she did oppose the regime. I read elsewhere that the concert incident was true and the first choice of replacement conductor was too drunk to perform so they found a third one, but this was considered to outlandish to put in the film. Perhaps the whole thing is apocryphal, but who knows. It certainly showed the fear ordinary people had.