The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia

I reckon the sight of all of those scalpels heading towards his torso might have terrified even Stalin, but perhaps what emerged afterwards might have been even worse. It's his plaster bust that gets the surgical treatment and like Athena from Zeus, out springs the future of a Bohemia that is to become Czechoslovakia - only not without it's trials and tribulations. Using a combination of clay-mation styles; some newspaper headlines and some propagandist posters we enjoy, thanks to quite a bit of playfulness, a potted history of a territory that had been invaded by the Nazis and left to the Soviets to nurture to their own values thereafter. There are revolutions a-plenty going on here, but until the late 1980s does anything really change for the public? Allegories also abound as the rapidly flowing animation entertainingly illustrates the power of the gun, the pen and of the statue bedecked with medals when it comes to indoctrination and the cementing of power. It has a political point to make, this film, but I rather enjoyed the subtle and humorous fashion in which it approaches that - in a satirical style akin to "Monty Python" and it's worth ten minutes.

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