Introduction

Summary

I begin with a disclaimer: this book is not really about all the last features that the East German film studio (DEFA) produced, nor is it a comprehensive survey of the entire last generation trained in East Germany's film school in Babelsberg, just outside Berlin, nor is this entire generation lost entirely—if it were, this book would not exist. But Last Features: East German Cinema's Lost Generation is still an apt title, because this book discusses in detail some of the most important films made in the DEFA studio between the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the studio's closure in 1992, films made by members of the so-called Nachwuchsgruppe—that is, a group of some of the directors from the youngest and last generation of the studio. But I also include the last features by two directors of older generations, as they relate directly in theme or style to the works of their younger colleagues. my choice of films and directors was guided by my own interest in aesthetically innovative filmmaking but also by my search for films that would be of interest to international audiences because of their thematic content and cinematic language rather than being focused mainly on coming to terms with specific experiences in the GDR, as the so-called Abrechnungsfilme did. The last features of the DEFA studio offered their directors a chance to freely express their views on previously taboo topics about life in the GDR.