This article examines the strategies used by directors of the East German film monopoly Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) to voice their disapproval of the Berlin Wall.1 My aim is to show how it was possible, despite universal censorship in East Germany, to create films that addressed the wall as an inhumane...
The cinema of the GDR has seen a steep rise in popularity since German unification. DEFA is now a popular “brand,” with its films being omnipresent on television, in movie theaters, and on DVD, Blu-ray, and online streaming video. Reasons for this success are located in the current infrastructure of...
For more than a decade, feature films produced by the GDR film company DEFA have been popular items in Germany. I analyze these films as commodities, arguing that this success by DEFA cinema needs to be read in conjunction with clever marketing strategies employed by the nonprofit foundation DEFA-Stiftung and...