10 - Cinema after the GDR’s Downfall: The Story of Ö-Film

Summary

THE GDR IS A COUNTRY that has ceased to exist, a country that history has passed by. It indulged not only in an oversized secret police and surveillance apparatus, but also, with DEFA, in a disproportionately large film industry for such a small country, working from a state-financed and lavishly equipped production studio. As Lenin once said, “Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important.” Everything in the GDR was directed, controlled, planned, and monitored by the state. In all areas of life, ideology took precedence over economics.

DEFA films differed from foreign films. They were more moralistic and were supposed to communicate values and ideology. In the best of cases, they were also more metaphorical. They made an impact through their images, not through their words. Words were ideologically freighted. DEFA films represented art in a dictatorship. Audiences had to read between the lines and read into the images. Subtext was important! The films were intended to be “read” by audiences. Their symbols were intended to be recognized. And GDR audiences had been taught to do this. In this way, these films, like the church, expanded inner freedoms. Seen from this perspective, DEFA, too, was subversive. It contributed to the overthrow of the social system and thus applied a saw to the very branch it was sitting on.

There were no private film production companies in the GDR, no privately owned film equipment. This meant there was no competition. People had what they most lack today: time. Everyone had a permanent position and drew a salary until they retired—even if, because of a lack of projects, there was no work to do. There were long periods taken up with research and development, and four state reviews for the certification of each film. No one bothered with the market. Other state-run companies were responsible for that, such as DEFA’s foreign trade division and the Progress distribution company. In most cases, the directors of DEFA’s documentary film studio suggested the themes of their upcoming films. Their proposals were incorporated into the studio’s “thematic plan,” and the films were made the following year. Funding came from the state, from the Ministry of Culture.