Teddy Bear

Stanislaw Bareja's 1981 satire of Polish life—a biting portrait of a society mired in deception and one-upmanship—helps viewers understand why the straightforward integrity of the Solidarity movement had such enormous appeal for the country during the 1980s. Teddy Bear's plot centers on a man nicknamed Bear, the president of a sports club en route with his team to England when he's stopped at a border crossing because his passport is missing several pages, presumably removed by his ex-wife as a means of preventing Bear from retrieving cash kept in a joint bank account in London. Bear concocts an elaborate scheme to secure another passport, enlisting friends in the movie business to find his double by advertising for a film role. But the plot is merely a frame on which to hang a cornucopia of jokes and gags skewering the venality, dishonesty, and sheer lethargy of a Communist society in an advanced stage of decomposition. While the film's approach is scattershot—with alternately frantic and lackadaisical pacing—it contains individual segments that are gems, such as the scenes focusing on an inept movie crew making an idiotic film, or a recurrent thread about the obligatory obsequiousness of the subordinates at the sports club. A funny film that also serves as an historical document of the attitudes prevalent in a collapsing Soviet satellite, Teddy Bear—presented on an extra-less disc—is recommended. (F. Swietek)