CounterpointStimulating debate with the British Council

During the Cold War, Estonians living on the northern Baltic coast close to Helsinki were able to receive Finnish television broadcasts. With this, their eyes were opened to western cultural exports such as Dallas. Suddenly large television aeriels appeared all over the Tallinn cityscape as people flocked from the south of the country to be with their families to watch American soap operas. With the Estonian Soviet authorities having cottoned on to this, something urgent had to be done to stop Estonians being brainwashed by western propaganda, therefore they attempted to develop technology to jam television broadcasts.

Film maker Jaak Kilmi tells this story through the context of his own youth, having been hooked on these very episodes of Dallas beamed from southern Finland.