WENDE FLICKS Set
(Wende Flicks)
Das Land hinter dem Regenbogen © DEFA-Stiftung, Dieter Jaeger
Synopsis
This eleven-DVD set presents eight feature films and four documentaries made by East German filmmakers in the period leading up to and after the fall of the Berlin Wall – that is, the Wende period, or great turning point in contemporary German history. With extensive bonus features, these films give insight into the challenges of film production in a period of radical upheaval; please see individual film pages for more information.
This collection includes the following feature films:
- The Architects (Kahane, 1990)
A young architect struggles to effect change in East Germany - Herzsprung (Misselwitz, 1992)
Three years after the Wall, unemployment and racism are rampant - Jana and Jan (Dziuba, 1991)
Two teenagers in juvenile detention, where their love is taboo - The Land beyond the Rainbow (Kipping, 1991)
A harsh, yet poetic critique of Stalinism - Latest from the Da-Da-R (Foth, 1990)
The satire of cabaret-artists Mensching & Wenzel - Miraculi (Weiß, 1991)
Avant-garde images of a universal uncertainty and shattered world - The Mistake (Carow, 1991)
An East-West love story – when such love was illegal - Silent Country (Dresen, 1992)
A tragicomedy set in the last months of East Germany
This collection includes the following documentaries:
- Leipzig in the Fall (Kroske/Voigt, 1989)
The Monday demonstrations of the Peaceful Revolution - Eastern Landscape (Schreiber, 1991)
The East as a landscape of discarded lives (On the Leipzig in the Fall DVD) - The Wall (Böttcher, 1989/90)
A poetic meditation on the Berlin Wall - whisper & SHOUT (Schumann, 1988)
A look at the East German punk & glam rock scene of the 1980s
Press comments
“These films all reveal a critical edge not permitted to East German artists of prior generations, with tools acquired from a long and illustrious filmmaking tradition. The resulting range of cinematographic style and vocabulary is breathtaking.”
— Ian Birnie, Director, Film Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
“The whole series is a real revelation of an undiscovered country.”
— Peter Rainer, film critic, KCRW Radio
“WENDE FLICKS shows a diverse world, from a comedy … to a surreal grotesque.”
— Tina Antolini, WFCR 88.5, NPR
“Repressed talents exploded in these films.”
— Goethe-Institut Washington D.C.
“These films are beautiful as much as they are devastating, offering a never-before-seen
insight into a society at the moment of transformation. Los Angeles fell in love with WENDE FLICKS.”
— Justinian Jampol, director, The Wende Museum
“Films of astonishing originality and explosive energy with great beauty, poetry and wit.”
— Reinhild Steingröver, Eastman School of Music, Rochester
“These films are a precious time capsule of artistic values, social attitudes, fashions, places and dreams of change. […] After twenty years, it is finally time to take a serious look at the Eastern vision of 1989-90.”
— Brigitta Wagner, Indiana University, Bloomington
“The superb East German filmmaking left LA audiences [at the series premiere] surprised and impressed by its sophisticated and intelligent storytelling.”
— Cristina Cuevas-Wolf, Education and Public Programming Los Angeles County Museum of Art
