Soviet Film Bureaucracy and Estonian Hand-Drawn Animation

Andreas Trossek When Did It Get Political? Soviet Film Bureaucracy and Estonian Hand-Drawn Animation This paper deals with the problematic issue of AGAINST DOMINATING the highly politicised concept of national culture TRENDS, AGAINST DOGMAS during the Soviet occupation/colonisation in Estonia, by focusing on some aspects of the The Soviet cinema authorities rejected two Es- field of cinema. Estonian traditional cel anima- tonian hand-drawn animated films in 1977 and tion, on the whole, provides a good case study: in 1978. In 1977, Goskino (the USSR State while being initially, that is, in the early 1970s, Committee for Cinematography, in Russian no more than a marginal factor in public space, Государственный комитет по кинематографии local animation still managed to become as СССР or Госкино) rejected the directorial de- important in the Estonian cultural sphere as but of the young Estonian film-maker Priit Pärn fine arts, music or literature by the late 1980s. (b. 1946), who had recently become an em- Why? Films produced in the Estonian Soviet ployee of the Tallinnfilm studio in Tallinn, the Socialist Republic were subject to Soviet film capital of Estonia, which then was the Estonian censorship and over the course of years this Soviet Socialist Republic. With his idiosyn- fact has led to the common understanding that cratic and non-conventional drawing style and something ‘political’ or ‘anti-Soviet’ had to be abundant sense of the absurd, Pärn had earned there. However, while reviewing some examples the reputation of being a talented caricaturist, of reportedly censored or ‘shelved’ animated mainly due to the popular humour magazine films, in retrospect one notices a presumption Pikker and the cultural weekly Sirp ja Vasar, rather than proof behind this argumentation. which quite often featured Pärn’s works. Nev- It has become almost a necessity in the recent ertheless, Pärn’s ten-minute Is the Earth history of Estonian film to see Soviet animated Round? (Kas maakera on ümmargune?, films as ‘political’ works a priori, as national 1977), produced by Tallinnfilm, was met with statements within the Soviet empire, and it is feelings of dismay in Moscow. Eventually a question of deductive rather than inductive Goskino disapproved the debut because of its reasoning. Nowadays, animation is certainly obviously crude design and perhaps too vague not a marginal issue in Estonia. On the con- plot. As a result, the film received a license for trary, it is a hallmark of local cultural heritage screening only within the limits of the Estonian and something highly valued in a country of SSR.2 A year later another Estonian animated only about 1.4 million people.1 This is a quite a film was rejected in Moscow, following a similar leap from the hierarchical position of animation path: officially it was forbidden to show this film in Soviet cinema, where animators en masse in other parts of the Soviet Union, or to dis- were most likely seen as a bit goofy and childish tribute it anywhere else in the world. This time film-makers, usually keen on caricature or book it was Vacuum Cleaner (Tolmuimeja, 1978), illustration (or not so nicely put: as semi-ama- a ten-minute film directed by Avo Paistik (b. teurish artists producing silly cartoons for little 1936), which featured pop art/photo-realist children). Which cultural mechanisms made this situation possible, this ‘imagological shift’ 1 See, for example, the web pages of the Estonian Insti- from Disney to Dante (not to mention from tute (http://www.einst.ee/publications/culture/) and the Cheburashka to Che Guevara)? In this paper, I Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://www.vm.ee/ estonia/kat_174/pea_174/405.html), which promote will investigate which cultural factors, no matter animation as a significant part of contemporary Estonian how broad or general, enabled Estonian drawn culture. animation to enter the area of national ‘high’ 2 Reportedly considered ‘too pessimistic’ at its first culture during the 1980s. As absurd as it may screening in Moscow, Goskino officials suggested a different ending to the film. In the initial director’s cut, the protago- seem, was it due to a specific cultural discourse nist, who has travelled around the world to see whether it of Soviet dissidence that made even these short is actually round or not (hence the title of the film), looks old and wrinkled after his journey, in which he has ended up films seem more dangerous than they really in the same place where he once started; however, to get were? So the question is: when did it get ‘politi- his film approved, Priit Pärn added one scene: the old man looks into the mirror and sees a reflection of a young boy, i.e. cal’ for the Estonian animators? himself when he was at the beginning of his world tour/life (Pärn 2003). 33 artwork by Rein Tammik (b. 1947), who had begun with serious-minded, painterly films, stood out as a talented ‘shocker’ among Es- which the founder of Tallinnfilm’s drawn anima- tonian painters since the early 1970s. Yet, the tion division Joonisfilm (established in 1971), initial project evolved and an innocent fairy tale Rein Raamat (b. 1931), was beginning to direct for small children grew into a cold emotion- in the second half of the 1970s; but this process less display of pop aesthetics that would make only became stronger when the topic of ‘shelved Kraftwerk LP covers look cute and cuddly, and films’ came along. at certain moments Tammik’s trendy artwork In contrast to the mainly children-oriented gave the film horrifying undertones.3 The fin- productions of the dominant Soyuzmultfilm ished production was abruptly rejected by Gos- studio (Союзмультфильм, founded in 1936), kino and not accepted for wider screening until Estonian animation was presented in most press 1987 (Teinemaa 1992: 10). Even in hindsight, reviews as very artistic and ‘adult’. Philosophical the film seems more an ‘art film’ for adults than plots and artistic originality were dominant over an unpretentious cartoon for children, which it simple fairy tales and Disney-like aesthetics. was meant to be. Both rejected animated films It is well remembered and also documented in could be screened in the limited number of So- the contemporary film press in the 1980s that viet Estonian movie theatres and, after a period both adults and children greatly enjoyed Pärn’s of time, they could also be shown on local tele- humorous, yet complicated, paradoxical and vision (Pärn 2003). And that was that. quite figuratively fast-thinking films, of which After these two events, however, no especially Some Exercises in Preparation for animated films from Soviet Estonia were dis- Independent Life (Harjutusi iseseisvaks eluks, approved as final products in Moscow. From 1980) and The Triangle (Kolmnurk, 1982) then on, a new era of semi-conflicts and quasi- stand out. Raamat was also eager to promote compromises began in local animation produc- animation as a ‘high’ art form for an adult audi- tion, because the worst had already happened. ence and directed most of his films according to Although these films were not literally ‘shelved’ that principle. His Big Tõll (Suur Tõll, 1980) (i.e. not released for public viewing) in the Sovi- featured artwork by Jüri Arrak (b. 1936), a et Union, limiting their distribution to the small painter who was at that time one of the most republic’s few cinemas and one local television established artistic figures in the country. After channel was certainly an effective punishment, films like Raamat’s Hell (Põrgu, 1983), a nearly very close to the actual fact of ‘shelving’. The twenty-minute cel cartoon that referred to the local studio, which had initially put money into prints of the well-known Estonian draughts- the productions, had now lost everything, be- man Eduard Wiiralt (1898–1954), or Pärn’s cause no copies were ordered. And it seems like twenty-seven-minute Luncheon on the Grass the film-makers had learned their lesson, too. (Eine murul, 1987), which has been mentioned Many working hours had been spent on films as one of the best Estonian films ever by the that post factum were not really shown any- renowned local film critic Jaan Ruus, there was where, because a film rejected in Moscow no question about it—Estonian animation was could not get to film festivals abroad either a ‘brand’, a ‘trademark’ in itself. And the cor- (Kiik 2003). nerstones of this ‘brand’ were formal originality, Nevertheless, it is the main argument artistic seriousness, and, implicitly, a hidden in this paper that it was precisely in these criticism of the Soviet system. years—the late 1970s and early 1980s—that To make these arguments clearer—ani- a particular phenomenon was born, at first in mation was and still is a typically marginal, ‘low’ Soviet Estonia, then gradually spreading all field of cultural activity all around the world, yet over the Soviet Union and finally to the whole in Soviet Estonia it gained the status of being world (of animation). Namely, a broader image as important as feature film, literature, poetry of Estonian cel animation as something quite or gallery-centred ‘high’ arts.4 If we were to re- original and prone to international recognition construct the public reception of these films, was beginning to form. This process had already we would undoubtedly acknowledge that some 34 political issues might have been in place. For such as ‘official’ Soviet film history. Moreover, Estonian viewers, a critique of the system qui- in the current situation the academic papers on etly underlay all of this, although film review- this issue are still fairly scarce.

Load more