FILM 265 - German Film in English Translation

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as GERM 265) Topic for 2025/26b: German Cinema Behind the Wall. This course explores the history of East German cinema through the films of the state-owned studios of DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), 1946-1992. DEFA produced a breadth and depth of films ranging beyond simple propaganda films to westerns, science fiction films, musicals, melodramas, spy thrillers, women’s films, fairy tales, and children’s films. Many of these films covered questions of gender, race, sexuality, and the complexities of diversity under the political and cultural environments of socialism. International critics voted more than a dozen of them among the 100 best German films ever. However, films from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) are still largely unknown to audiences both in and outside of Germany. This course analyzes a selection of significant works created by inventive filmmakers who tested the limits of censorship, and whose artistic and political engagement and depth are a testament to the creative merit of (East) German film. Silke von der Emde.

Readings and discussions are in English, and all films have English subtitles.

Open to all classes.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS