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Cinema of collaboration : DEFA coproductions and international exchange in Cold War Europe

"From their very inception, European cinemas undertook collaborative ventures in an attempt to cultivate a transnational "Film-Europe." In the postwar era, it was DEFA, the state cinema of East Germany, that emerged as a key site for cooperative practices. Despite the significant challenges that the Cold War created for collaboration, DEFA sought international prestige through various initiatives. These ranged from film exchange in occupied Germany to partnerships with Western producers, and from coproductions with Eastern European studios to strategies for film co-authorship. Uniquely positioned between East and West, DEFA proved a crucial mediator among European cinemas during a period of profound political division"--Almost from their very inception, European cinemas undertook collaborative ventures in an attempt to cultivate a transnational "Film-Europe." And despite the significant impediments that the Cold War presented to such efforts, in the postwar era it was, DEFA, the state cinema of East Germany, that emerged as a key site for these cooperative practices. DEFA sought international prestige through a range of initiatives, whether film exchange in occupied Germany, partnerships with producers in the West, or promoting science fiction and Western films to compete with Hollywood. Uniquely positioned between East and West, DEFA unexpectedly proved a crucial mediator among European cinemas during a period of profound political division.