REEES Film Series: Teddy Bear (dir. Stanisław Bareja, 1981)

The corrupt manager of a state-sponsored sports club, nicknamed Teddy Bear, needs to travel to London to retrieve funds from a joint bank account before his ex-wife does. However, because his passport has been impounded by the state, he must orchestrate an elaborate, convoluted scheme involving a movie set double, fake marriages, and ridiculous bureaucratic workarounds just to leave the country.

This cult comedy uses a frantic, episodic structure filled with non-sequiturs, bizarre subplots, and rapid-fire visual gags. The film captures the absurd daily realities of Poland’s late-communist era: artificial shortages, absurd propaganda, widespread cynicism, and the hilarious, intricate systems citizens devised just to survive inside the iron cage.

A cultural touchstone in Poland, Teddy Bear is widely regarded as the ultimate satire of the absurdity, corruption, and transactional madness of late-stage socialism.

More info about the Film Series