A Funny Probe Into the Absurd World of Soviet Commercials. True story about a fake reality or a fake story about true reality? The inhabitants of the countries of former Eastern Bloc can still remember the absurdity of television commercials in the socialist era, when such products as salad or things permanently out of stock were advertised. The Gold Spinners (Kullaketrajad) is a story about the birth, glory years and disappearance of the film studio Eesti Reklaamfilm - the only company producing advertisements in the Soviet Union. Under this regime with no actual goods to advertise, the marketing rules did not apply and - to the thousands of concerned Soviet officials - even the word 'advertisement' sounded almost as ominous as such as words as saxophone, CIA and Coca-Cola.
Despite all these obstacles, during its heyday Eesti Reklaamfilm - the brainchild of just one man - provided employment for hundreds of people and the adverts it created won the hearts of millions - all the remarkable when you consider that in the Soviet Union, there were meant to be no goods to advertise. All this took place in the "socialist empire", under the conditions of planned economy and universal lack of everything. In this lightly and swiftly shot film, The Gold Spinners, two Estonian filmmakers, Kiur Aarma (Disco and Atomic War)and Hardi Volmer, decided to look under the hood of this company and find out how they prepared their commercials, one of which was even used in the Borat movie.
Out of Estonia comes a most perverse and pleasurable story of the former Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, the Estonian Film Archive received a pile of canisters containing long-lost film strips from Eesti Reklaamfilm - the only studio in the USSR that produced commercials. The founder and boss of the successful business enterprise was Peedu Ojamaa, a gifted salesman who started young, selling seedy photos to his school friends. According to Peedu, "Everybody knows that happiness means owning things." When the Kremlin decided to make commercials in the late '60s, it seems fitting that such a man got the permit. If the products didn't exist, or at best didn't make it to the shelves, what did it matter? The style was borrowed from the West, overlaid with a special Soviet touch (check out the Cosmos marmalade). Kiur Aarma's documentary, crafted from the Archive's lost-and-found commercials, is filled with jaw-dropping ads and lines, such as, "If we don't have the product, at least with have the packaging." Don't miss this hilarious and knowing ride through a little-known aspect of Soviet history.

A Film by Kiur Aarma and Hardi Volmer ; A Traumfabrik Production with support of the Estonian Film Institute, Kultuurkapital and ERR

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