Disco and Atomic War (2009)

A story about growing up in the Soviet Union. The film tells the story of a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular ... See full summary »

Director:

Jaak Kilmi

Writers:

Kiur Aarma (creator), Jaak Kilmi (creator)

Stars:

Kiur Aarma, Jaak Kilmi, Alo Kõrve

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kiur Aarma	...	Narrator (voice)
Jaak Kilmi	...	Narrator (voice)
Alo Kõrve	...	Narrator (voice)
Jaan Tootsen	...	Narrator (voice)
Liina Vahtrik	...	Narrator (voice)
Eduard Toman	...	Narrator (voice)
Urho Kekkonen	...	Himself, president of Finland (archive footage)
Esko Salminen	...	Himself, Finnish historian, professor of media and communications
Teija Sopanen	...	Herself, Finnish TV hostess (archive footage)
Lieko Zachovalová	...	Herself, Finnish news correspondent to Prague (voice) (archive footage)
Sakari Kiuru	...	Himself, former CEO of the Finnish Broadcasting Company
Arvo Sildnik	...	Himself, television engineer
Edward Lucas	...	Himself, the author of 'The New Cold War'
Ami Aspelund	...	Herself (archive footage)
Yuri Andropov	...	Himself (archive footage)

Storyline

A story about growing up in the Soviet Union. The film tells the story of a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture. And loses. It was a time when it was possible for erotic film star Emmanuelle to bring down the Red Army and MacGyver to outdo an entire school administration. It is a film about our generation, who were unknowingly brought to the front line of the Cold War. Western popular culture had an incomparable role shaping Soviet children's world views in those days. Finnish television was a window to a world of dreams that the authorities could not block in any way. Though Finnish channels were banned, many households found some way to access the forbidden fruit.

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Plot Keywords:

disco | finnish television | television | soviet union | estonia | 

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Taglines:

The story of a totalitarian regime brought down by disco

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Estonia Finland

Language:

Estonian Finnish Russian English

Release Date:

12 November 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Disco & Atomic War

Filming Locations:

Estonia

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,077

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eetriüksus, Helsinki-Filmi

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min 80 min

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Features Evropeyskaya istoriya (1984)

User Reviews

An insightful and entertaining documentary

Disco and Atomic War is an entertaining and intriguing documentary about a lesser known aspect of the later years of the Soviet Union. It focuses on how people in Northern Estonia were able to peek out from behind the Iron Curtain through Finnish television and radio, which enables the people to learn about things such as, well, Disco.

The way the information is presented is entertaining. They use clips of television shows and commercials of the time and tell amusing stories of the inhabitants of Tallinn (the capital of Estonia, located in the North), and of the powers that be, who tried to somehow control the "westernizing" of the local people.

The stories are somewhat absurd, and provide some fun humor into this documentary, a genre of movie which usually isn't all that "entertaining".

The effects of the subject matter, TV and radio, on the fall of the Soviet Union is blown a bit out of proportion, but that is normal for a documentary.

This is an excellent film about a topic, that is not as well known, even by the younger people in Estonia, who weren't alive at the time.