Slogans

A young teacher named Andre arrives at a mountain village where he’s to be a new teacher at a local primary school. To his great surprise he discovers that the main proof of his expertise will be generating huge slogans proclaiming Communist principles. Considering that he’s new at the school he’s allowed to choose between “Up with the spirit of the revolution!” and “American imperialism is nothing more than a paper tiger.” On the advice of his colleague he chooses the shorter of the two. The next day, after teaching, he and his class set out for a convenient spot to ‘write’ a huge slogan out of white rocks. But the ridiculous tasks awaiting him at the school are far from over. Every week the local party secretary assigns the teachers new slogans, and they soon learn that the huge slogan campaign is intended to impress an important party member who will be passing through. Using these slogans, the director has succeeded in exposing the absurdity of Albanian political life at the end of the seventies. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)