> What’s interesting about Afonya is its picture of Soviet life at a time when we were told all was grey, unsmiling misery there. Instead it’s a world with palp

> What’s interesting about Afonya is its picture of Soviet life at a time when we were told all was grey, unsmiling misery there. Instead it’s a world with palpable similarities to the West: pop music, glamour photos, consumerism and (undeniably) a class-system. I had a similar feeling watching the 1969 hungarian movie "A tanú" ("The Witness")[0]. While the movie is about communist Hungary, it is interesting how some of the themes are common to satire of any disfunctional organization (incompetents that get promoted because of politicking, clueless people in power, nepotism, unjust punishment etc). It's a pretty funny movie, and there's a recently restored version so it should be possible to find it if you try a bit. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(1969_Hungarian_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(1969_Hungarian_fi...