berlinblogger.no

En halvtime sydvest for Berlin sentrum, i den sjarmerende byen Potsdam, ligger Babelsberg filmstudio. Her har noen av filmhistoriens mest ukjente titler også blitt laget.

Etter andre verdenskrig var DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft) det første filmselskapet som ble etablert i det okkuperte Tyskland. Mens de andre allierte var skeptiske, mente sovjetrusserne at film var et utmerket medium for indoktrinering av det tyske folk etter tolv år under nazistyre. DEFA ble etablert i 1946 og eksisterte fram til 1992. Det var det eneste filmproduksjonsselskapet i DDR.

Mot slutten av 1940-tallet ble ledelsen i DEFA skiftet ut med sovjetrussere og “rettroende” østtyskere, og produksjonsprofilen ble klarere politisk og stalinistisk. Sensuren var så sterk at fra 1949 og fram til Stalins død i 1953 ble det totalt kun produsert 53 filmer ved DEFA studioet. Etter dette løsnet jerngrepet noe, men det var hele tiden en rigorøs politikk når det gjaldt tematikk og innhold i filmene.

Mange som hadde jobbet teknisk med film under nazistene fikk fortsette i DEFA. De benyttet seg også av kremen av skuespillere fra Berlins teatre og landets fremste forfattere til å skrive manus.

Volumet økte kraftig etter hvert, både når det gjaldt spillefilmer, tv-film, barnefilm og dokumentar. Det ble totalt produsert 950 spillefilmer, 820 animerte filmer og mer enn 5800 dokumentarfilmer og filmaviser.

Etter hvert utviklet det seg sjangere som DEFA briljerte i, som sosialistisk realisme, eventyrfilmer, adaptasjon av bøker, antifascistiskefilmer og såkalte “eastern westerns”.

På 1980-tallet åpnet DDR for visning av vestlige filmer Dette ble begynnelsen til slutten for DEFA. Krisen på 80-tallet kulminerte i at selskapet ble nedlagt i 1992 og de fleste ansatte mistet jobben. Private vestlige interesser tok over Babelsberg-studioet.

I de senere årene har DEFA-filmene blitt hentet fram fra glemselen på historiens skraphaug. Flere av filmene er nå tilgjengelige på DVD og både i Tyskland og USA har det vært egne festivaler, nå senest ved Museum of Modern Art i New York i 2005. Her er noen av filmene som ble presentert på MoMA:

Der Dritte (Her Third). 1971. GDR. Directed by Egon Günther. With Jutta Hoffmann, Barbara Dittus, Armin Mueller-Stahl. Told in a series of flashbacks, Her Third recounts eighteen years of a woman’s life. After two failed relationships, each of which produces a child, a newly liberated Margit discovers herself. This engaging story is also a testament to the evolving self-confidence and independence of East German women. 111 min.

Die Architekten (The Architects). 1990. GDR. Directed by Peter Kahane. Screenplay by Kahane, Thomas Knauf. With Kurt Naumann, Rita Feldmeier, Uta Eisold. Filmed as the GDR crumbled, this finely drawn portrait of life in East Berlin depicts a young architect whose circumstances and goals are strangled by communist dogma, represented in part by the older generation. 97 min.

Das Fahrrad (The Bicycle). 1981. GDR. Directed by Evelyne Schmidt. With Heidemarie Schneider, Roman Kaminski, Anke Friedrich. Susanne, a single mother living a somewhat carefree lifestyle, lands in deep financial trouble and attempts minor fraud. Authorities were critical of this portrayal of a less-than-ideal socialist citizen, now seen as a rare view of everyday socialism from a woman’s perspective. 89 min.

Die Legende von Paul und Paula (The Legend of Paul and Paula). 1972. GDR. Directed by Heiner Carow. With Angelica Domröse, Winfried Glatzeder, Heidemarie Wenzel. Author Ulrich Plenzdorf and director Carow winningly portray everyday life in East Berlin in this story of undefeatable, passionate love between a single mother and a married bureaucrat. Featuring the music of the East German cult rock band The Puhdys. 106 min.

Das zweite Gleis (The Second Track). 1962. GDR. Directed by Joachim Kunert. With Albert Hetterle, Annekathrin Bürger, Horst Jonischkan. Station Inspector Brock is witness to a robbery but, guilt-ridden by his failure to stand up to the Nazi regime years ago, he fails to report one of the culprits. The Second Track is the only East German film to deal with the sensitive subject of former Nazis leading normal lives in the GDR. 80 min.

Karbid und Sauerampfer (Carbide and Sorrel). 1963. GDR. directed by Frank Beyer. With Erwin Geschonneck, Kurt Rackelmann, Rudolf Asmus. Toward the end of World War II, workers in Dresden send a colleague hundreds of miles north to pick up welding supplies for their factory. His attempts to move the supplies through the Soviet occupation zone lead to an uproarious odyssey full of hijinks and misadventure. 80 min.

Das Kaninchen bin ich (The Rabbit Is Me). 1965/1990. GDR. Directed by Kurt Maetzig. With Angelika Waller, Alfred Müller, Ilse Voigt. A young student has an affair with a hypocritical judge who once sentenced her brother for his political activities. Made in 1965 to encourage discussion of democratization of East German society, the film was eventually banned by government officials. 109 min.

Die Mutter (Mother). 1958. GDR. Directed by Manfred Wekwerth, Harry Bremer. With Helene Weigel, Fred Düren, Erich Franz. Bertolt Brecht’s grand epic of political theater, written in 1931, is an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s novel and tells the rousing story of an oppressed Russian woman who is transformed into a militant revolutionary. Filmed by DEFA, this production retains much of Brecht’s original cast, and includes a landmark performance from Weigel. 147 min.

Dein unbekannter Bruder (Your Unknown Brother). 1981. GDR. Directed by Ulrich Weiss. With Uwe Kockisch, Michael Gwisdek, Jenny Gröllmann. Returning from a Nazi camp for political prisoners in 1935, Arnold Clasen is ambivalent about reestablishing contact with his resistance group, afraid of being watched. This milestone film both sustains and breaks with the antifascist traditions of East German cinema. 108 min.

Jahrgang 45 (Born in ’45). 1966/1990. GDR. Directed by Jürgen Böttcher. Screenplay by Klaus Poche, Böttcher. With Monika Hildebrand, Rolf Römer, Paul Eichbaum. Inspired by Italian Neorealism and Jean-Luc Godard, Böttcher developed a sensitive style characterized by social observation and poetic verse in his only feature film. Newlyweds Alfred and Lisa decide to divorce. Alfred takes a few days off to clear his head, wandering through Berlin and meeting strangers. 94 min.

Der Fall Gleiwitz (The Gleiwitz Case). 1961. GDR. Directed by Gerhard Klein. Screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. With Hannjo Hasse, Herwart Grosse, Hilmar Thate. Considered one of the most modern and experimental films in DEFA’s history, the eccentric Gleiwitz Case is a detailed reconstruction of the 1939 surprise attack by a Nazi unit on the radio station at Gleiwitz, a German town on the Polish border. The attack, blamed on Polish forces, served as Hitler’s justification for marching into Poland—thus starting World War II. 69 min.

Berlin—Ecke Schönhauser (Berlin—Schönhauser Corner). 1957. GDR. Directed by Gerhard Klein. Screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. With Ekkehard Schall, Ilse Pagé, Ernst-Georg Schwill. This classic teen cult film is a perceptive social portrait of a city whose political and economic divisions affected its entire population. Greeted with suspicion by cultural authorities, the film was instantly embraced by the East German public for its truthful portrayal of everyday life. 82 min.