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Written by Jasmine Sahu
A fearless, adventurous reporter, with a penchant for world travel and a keen inquiring mind, whose adventures have brought ground-breaking stories to the public for years. Who am I talking about? Hard to say, since the above could refer to both Tintin and his enthusiastic fan, Frank Gardner, who is better known to most as the BBC Security Correspondent. Gardner wasn’t in reporter-mode here, however, as he led us on a shamelessly celebratory exploration of Hergé’s first Tintin comic – Tintin In The Land of the Soviets. This documentary was highly watchable, but its heavy bias may have left the uninitiated feeling cold.
Having only recently seen the latest film adaptation of Tintin, I was very interested to find out about the character’s origins. Gardner led us into the Hergé mythology from a perspective that drew us into considering the documentary through the eyes of our own childhood. And this was a necessity since the documentary set out to impress its audience with Hergé’s artistic expertise and skill at interweaving cultural subtext; an assertion which might appear ridiculous if you were to regard Tintin as something ‘just for kids’.
There was an ample collection of Hergé relics and trivia to excite us, with the unveiling of an original hand-drawn page, the notes from the first English translation and the identity of a historical template for Tintin (the French photojournalist, Sexe) providing thrilling set pieces. Eventually, even our adult eyes were forced to accept how perfect the homogenous, ageless image of Tintin was when it came to creating an enduring hero for children.
This earnest approach fell down however, when the documentary came to consider the subject of Hergé’s first comic. Tintin In The Land of The Soviets could never have been anything other than an example of the anti-Communist propaganda that was so prevalent in Western Europe during the 1920s. Even a layman, like myself, would know Tintin’s reputation for racist and hopelessly biased presentations of non-Western cultures (with Tintin’s Adventures in the Congo being one of the most infamous offenders). It was disappointing to find that this documentary lacked the courage to properly address these issues.
Having presented us with the opinions of a single Soviet-era historian, a BBC (and ergo British) foreign correspondent and a ‘modern day Kulak’, the programme seemed content to declare Hergé’s version of 1920s Russia as accurate, despite examples that clearly showed the book bandying such problematic adjectives as ‘evil’ in its presentation of the regime. Admittedly, some attempt was made to provide a different viewpoint – Hergé himself acknowledged the provocative potential of the stories – but this was merely a cursory concession.
Despite this crucial fault in the proceedings, I have to say that most other aspects of this documentary were good. The animation really brought the comic to life and the hour rolled by quickly, spurred by a fast narration pace. The music was suitably rousing, and Gardner provided amusing side commentary about the varying qualities of wheel-chair access around Brussels, London and Moscow. All in all, this was a relaxed experience; though I’m not sure it’s anything to look up on iPlayer for casual entertainment.
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