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Audiences at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival will read “Subtitled by the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst” on the big screen when 1970s musical comedy “Don’t Cheat, Darling!” is shown in Germany this month.

The DEFA Film Library has been producing English subtitles for film releases as part of their graduate student career training and programming since 2006 and UMass Amherst alumna Hasret Eleby, ’21, created the subtitles for “Don’t Cheat, Darling!,” a Joachim Hasler-directed film about a female soccer team that smartly battles their privileged hometown men’s team. The film will be shown during this year’s festival, which will be held from Feb. 13-23 and will feature 15 East and West German genre films from the 1970s.

“We are proud of our subtitles that are not only defined by a deep understanding of language but also the culture of the country where the films were produced,” says Hiltrud Schulz, DEFA production manager. “Making our films available with English subtitles helps to reach not only a wider academic audience but also public audiences across North America and worldwide.” 

DEFA’s subtitles have been used by the international network of the Goethe-Institutes, the DEFA Foundation in Berlin and DEFA Film Library’s licensees for film releases and screenings. 

“Don’t Cheat, Darling!” is available for worldwide educational streaming and for the UMass Amherst community on kanopy.com.

To learn more about the film and its making, the DEFA Film Library commissioned an essay written by Oliver Knabe of the University of Dayton, who researches 20^th- and 21^st-century German culture, with a particular focus on the intersections of sports, politics and social justice. The essay will be published on DEFA website at the end of February.