In 1973, General Pinochet, with the support of the US secret service, staged a coup against the democratically elected Marxist-Socialist President of Chile, Salvador Allende. Pinochet’s military junta murdered and tortured their way across the country. Juan Forch, Santiago-born journalist and filmmaker, managed to escape the terror via Mexico to the GDR and continued his opposition work from here until his return in 1979: as a director at the DEFA Studio for Animation Film in Dresden. With silhouette film specialist Jörg Herrmann he realised this animated agitation miniature, in which the dictator and his allies dance to the caustic artist’s tune – and to organ music.

Unusually elaborate in terms of cinematography and dramaturgy, the film illustrates the dangers of careless children playing on railway premises. It’s only logical that this leads to a recommendation to make do with the less dangerous model trains. Quite a number of film and television careers began at the “Iskra” pioneer film studio, headed for many years by the lower grade and handicrafts teacher Rolf Kießling.