Hammer & Tickle

Plot synopsis:
What would happen if they introduced Communism to Saudi Arabia? Nothing at first but soon there would be a shortage of sand.Why, despite all the shortages, was the toilet paper in East Germany always 2-ply? Because they had to send a copy of everything they did to Moscow.This is the first ever film about Communist jokes, the most extraordinary cultural legacies of eighty years of socio-political experimentation in Russia and Eastern Europe.Under the oppressive Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its satellites, ordinary people told thousands of jokes about the society they lived in and the political system they suffered under. Denied free speech, and confronted daily with the gap between political propaganda and everyday reality, jokes became the language of truth in the world of Communism. They were a way for ordinary people to resist the regime but the Communist regimes also used to jokes, to diffuse opposition. Jokes were thus the real battleground between state and people under Communism.Using this unique folkloric archive, this funny and insightful feature-length documentary tells the real history of Communism through the jokes. On the way it tells the stories of what happened to the joke-tellers, some of whom ended up in the Gulags, while others became stars of the stage and screen. This Monty-Python-esque history of Communism recreates the jokes using sketches, tricked archive and special animations. There are interviews with the legends of Communism and legendary Communist joke-tellers including Solidarity Leader and former Polish president Lech Walesa, the hardline Polish leader General Jaruselski, German actor Peter Sodann, , German satirist and author Ernst Roehl, East German newspaper editor and Politburo member Guenter Schabowski, and Britains own Professor of jokes, Christie Davies.The film unearthes never-seen-before archive of the jokes that President Reagan told at Press Conferences, of the only anti-Communist comedy show ever broadcast on a Communist state television channel, and of the jokes and cartoons that the Czechs graffiti-ed on their town square when the Russians invaded in 1968.
Uncovering extraordinary stories never before told on television, director Ben Lewis met the man who collected jokes for Ronald Reagan, the Polish prankster who gave away toilet paper to deprived fellow citizens, and the Romanian amateur statistician who collected and analysed Communist jokes scientifically to reveal the part they played in the downfall of the system.

Tags: humor

Review:
Interesting and accessible film that gets the structure, content and tone just right. Having been to Russia for a few weeks for work recently I was interested in the night of programming that the ever reliable BBC4 screened recently. With this film the focus is less on the specific history of Russia but more the status of satire and joking down the ages of Communism. With the film mainly focusing on Russia we also learn of the experiences of those in Hungary, Germany and other countries where Communism was the ruling political ideal.At first I wondered if the material would be able to fill out 30 minutes, far less 90 because it does seem to be a very superficial subject and have a very light approach. However the film lays the subject out very well and the delivery is accessible without being superficial. The structure allows for the film to deal with Russia and Communism in easy historical chunks and for each one the delivery allows the casual viewer to sufficiently understand the context when the film looks at the nature of the joking. Saying the film is about "jokes" is doing it a bit of a disservice though because really it is about dissension, satire, gallows humour and how they were grown from and treated by the political leaders and social conditions of the various times.As such i was surprised by how interesting I found it and I think director Ben Lewis does himself down when he sets the film up while being filmed reading joke books  really it is about much more than that. The use of talking heads is selective and well placed across the whole film but what I found more effective was the use of animation and "sketches" to tell typical jokes from the periods. I had seen this same device used recently in a film about humour in the time of Nazi Germany and I must say that here I saw how well it could be done. The animation is cool and the sketches come over natural and well timed.Overall an interesting and accessible film. The subject matter suggests that there will not be much to cover but the reality is quite the opposite as the film is well structured to deliver a comprehensive look at satire over a long period while avoiding feeling either too detailed or too superficial.