Fans of East German cinema have asked me if there are any good books in English on East German movies. There is, of course, Defa: East German Cinema 1946-1992, edited by Seán Allan and John Sandford— a collection of essays by some of the world’s leading East German film scholars, including Barton Byg, Christiane Mückenberger, …
Month: November 2013
Hands Up or I’ll Shoot!
For a perfect example of the utter lunacy of the 11th Plenum, you need look no further than Hands Up, or I’ll Shoot! (Hände hoch oder ich schieße). This film is as innocuous a movie as one could hope for, yet the SED felt the need to ban it alongside nearly every other film slated …
On the Sunny Side
On the Sunny Side (Auf der Sonnenseite) is an entertaining little film about a man named Martin Hoff, who goes from working in a steel foundry to taking drama classes, only to be kicked out for bad behavior. It stars Manfred Krug, who, like Hoff, was working as a steelworker when he started taking drama …
East German Cinema Blog 