Defa at the Crossroads of East German and International Film Culture

Although East Germany may have seemed like an island during the Cold War, films produced by DEFA were never just a monologue but in constant dialogue, if not competition, with both the capitalist West and socialist East. This volume reshapes DEFA cinema studies by exploring international networks, identifying lines of influence beyond national boundaries and recognizing genre qualities that surpass the temporal and spatial confines of the state. The Series: Companions to Contemporary German Culture, The series offers lively, comprehensive accounts of contemporary German culture written by experts and designed for advanced student readers and scholars alike. Both in monographs and closely-defined edited collections, it aims to introduce major authors, thinkers, filmmakers, literary topics, genres and landmark individual works, focusing on the period since 1989 but reaching back, where appropriate, to the vital hinterland of the 1970s. Book jacket.