Director Manfred Vainokivi

Countries Estonia

Duration 52 min

Synopsis
A jolly documentary mixed with feature film (but not mockumentary) episodes tells a story of the Soviet-time lifestyle when stealing from the state was an act of honour, a fashion, for common people. And everybody wanted to be popular and fashionable – a thief., Stealing from the corrupted state helped to get by and keep morale high. The common man felt that the state was stealing from him all the time, so one had to take something back from the real robber – the state., Theft was a way to build private homes, which was what every decent man aimed to do (building materials were not available otherwise)., Stealing was a sport and an art and as the risk of ending up in jail was high, the Soviet-time people still boast about it., So when the state was stripped of all the bits and pieces of rubble (often left to rot as much of it was useless anyway), the colossus that was Soviet Union fell apart., We have collected a few hundred stories of stealing and will mix those with Soviet propaganda film extracts, which give a completely different picture of daily life. A Soviet-style amateur band playing appropriate music will also be included.