DEFA: Arrival in everyday life

To what extent can conclusions be drawn from films about everyday life in the GDR? Was the GDR "like that"? Films of all eras interpret and evaluate reality. Often subliminally politically. This was all the more true in the social system of the GDR. The socialist state wanted to control every form of publicity, and the film studios were also supposed to make their contribution to a society of new socialist people. Accordingly, DEFA films (like all films) should be "read" with an alert awareness of their conditions of production. They bear witness both to the perspectives of their directors and screenwriters and to the intentions of the commissioner and censor, i.e. the state. Despite the corset of state guidelines, many DEFA filmmakers succeeded in capturing a piece of the attitude to life of their time. Just as the artists constantly moved in the field of tension between conformity and obstinacy, many of the feature films and documentaries made by the DEFA studios are often inscribed with an exciting second view of everyday life in the GDR. The title of the collection "Arrival in Everyday Life" is a story by the writer Brigitte Reimann. (Photo: "Coming out")

Accordingly, DEFA films (like all films) should be "read" with an alert awareness of their conditions of production. They bear witness both to the perspectives of their directors and screenwriters and to the intentions of the commissioner and censor, i.e. the state. Despite the corset of state guidelines, many DEFA filmmakers succeeded in capturing a piece of the attitude to life of their time. Just as the artists constantly moved in the field of tension between conformity and obstinacy, many of the feature films and documentaries made by the DEFA studios are often inscribed with an exciting second view of everyday life in the GDR.

The title of the collection "Arrival in Everyday Life" is a story by the writer Brigitte Reimann. (Photo: "Coming out")

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