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Byword and atom7/31/2023 "A deadpan-comic document of how filmmaker Jaak Kilmi and other grade schoolers in early-80s Estonia had their lives altered by illegally-intercepted Finnish TV broadcasts of Western hallmarks like Dallas, disco dance shows and the original Emmanuelle, Disco's great gift is a total deconstruction of the notion of "soft power" - essentially, a nation's attempt to assert and maintain its dominance through not violent but viral means, including media and public relations.". "It's an ingenious and masterful film, so funny and so heartbreaking it may leave you giggling and crying by turns, and it reminds us that pop culture, even at its most venal and idiotic – perhaps especially then – is the gooey, delicious sauce that comes on top of Freedom fries." -Andrew O'Hehir, Salon The genie was out of the bottle, Estonians were now in the grip of American television, and they began to dream that one day, they too would spend their days working in skyscrapers and their nights drinking fine whiskey by the pool, alongside their robot car. The government controlled media scrambled to create western-style soap operas and disco-saturated television programming that vaguely reinforced communist values, but it was far too little, and much too late. Teenagers went to their school dances and imitated the disco moves they saw on television, clothing and hairstyles began to change radically, and things would never be the same. Ewing spread by word of mouth to the rural south, and the nation of Estonia was as gripped by the saga as the USA had ever been. As illicit television antennas sprung up in Northern Estonia, rumors about the attempted murder of J.R. Just a few miles across the border in Finland, a huge new television antenna was built that broadcast western signals in all directions-including directly into the heart of the Talinn, the capital of Estonia.įilmmakers Jaak Kilmi and Kiur Aarma grew up in Talinn in the 80's, and in DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR they make use of wonderfully playful but credible recreations to set their true personal coming of age story against the backdrop of the rapid collapse of the Soviet government in Estonia. Rock and Roll was but a rumor and the only television shows on the air were dreary propaganda. The totalitarian government's power was derived in no small part from their ability to censor cultural life and keep Western culture on the other side of the border. Winner of the Best Documentary prize at the Warsaw International Film Festival, this witty, charming, and provocative film recounts how in the mid 1980's, the nation of Estonia still lay firmly in the grip of the Soviet Union, and the repressive authorities controlled virtually all aspects of Estonian life.
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