Best New Documentary Film

HAMMER & TICKLE - THE COMMUNIST JOKE BOOK (HAMMER & TICKLE - THE COMMUNIST JOKE BOOK)

Frankreich, Kanada, Grossbritannien, 2005

Director:

Ben Lewis

Script:

Ben Lewis, Christine Camdessus

Camera:

Frank-Peter Lehmann

Producer:

Christine Camdessus

90 min., Farbe, E/Russisch/D/Rumänisch etc./e

Cast:

Vyacheslaw Ruzaev, Victor Rudnichenko, Andreas Szöke, Constantin Florescou,

What would happen if Communism was introduced to Saudi Arabia? Nothing at first, but soon there would be a shortage of sand. 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. This documentary tells the real history of Communism through the jokes and the joke-tellers, many of whom ended up in the gulags.
The film is illustrated with a combination of rare archive material, interviews and recreations of the jokes as sketches and animations. It is packed with strange stories – of the official who collected jokes for Ronald Reagan and of the Romanian statistician who collected and analysed Communist jokes to reveal the part they played in the downfall of the system.