John Heartfield (1891-1968) - born Helmut Herzfelde - was a photomontage pioneer in inter-war Germany whose work uncompromisingly satirised Hitler and the rise of the Nazis. The consequences were predictable - he was forced to flee Germany in 1938. He moved to England where he worked for Picture Post and Penguin Books, among others; as a committed Marxist, he was never welcome in the US.

This radical and humorous film tribute to him, by Gavin Hodge and Tim Morrison, uses video equivalents of his montage methods through the use of animation, archive film, contemporary interviews, footage of the fall of the Berlin Wall - and computer editing techniques that would astonish Heartfield. For him, it was scissors and glue that were mightier than the fascist sword.