Hammer & Tickle

The story of a political system that was laughed out of existence. What would happen if they introduced Communism to Saudi Arabia? Nothing at first but soon there would be a shortage of sand. 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.