The Tramp and the Dictator

As Viktoria Chaplin was looking through her father Charlie’s personal positions, she found a unique document. 16mm filmstrip that was shot by her uncle Sydney Chaplin and documented her father Charlie during the time of shooting The Great Dictator (1940). The unusual film, shot in color in amateur camera highlights Chaplin’s ambitious projects: his revenge on the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. With his satirical genius, he not only exposed the “Führer” to ridicule, but more than that, he revealed the brutal nature of Nazism. This documentary gives unlimited access to Chaplin’s cinematic and literary estate, and hitherto unknown documents from German archives. Eyewitnesses talk of the difficult shooting in Hollywood, and of the Nazi leadership’s reaction to the success of the film - and of course, outtakes from the amateur color film of the shooting of Chaplin’s The Great Dictator are shown for the very first time.