The action in What Would Happen If…? (Was wäre, wenn...?) takes place in Willshagen, an imaginary village that sits in a bulge on the border between East and West Germany. Most people in the town have either joined the local agricultural collective1 or are considering it. Großbauer Dahlke (Gerd Ehlers), the owner of the largest …
Tag: DEFA
The Bicycle
The protagonists in East German films are frequently women. In movies such as Her Third, He You!, and The Dove on the Roof, the plots center around women who are on an equal (or superior) footing to their male counterparts. Even in genre films such as Signals and In the Dust of the Stars, we …
Naked Among Wolves
Right from the start, the East was always more willing to talk about World War II than the West. After the war, East Germany had no vested interest in placating the fat cats that had been profiteering under the Nazi regime. They nationalized large corporate holdings, and the leaders of any such companies were seen …
The Silent Star
It is worth noting that while people often give Star Trek credit for using a multi-ethnic cast at a time when TV in American was almost exclusively the domain of white males, The Silent Star had already done this six years earlier.
East German Cinema Blog 