The Russians Are Coming: cinema and censorship in East Germany

• Grant number: 19/04065-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Luis Antonio Coelho Ferla
• Grantee: Monaliza Caetano dos Santos
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Based on the main consensus and analysis about the year 1968, the project will research the processes of revolt and censorship in the eastern part of the divided Germany. In general, the population of this region was considered little politically agitated when compared to the West and even to the other Eastern European countries. Consequently, the German Democratic Republic received limited reviews when it comes to the 1960s and 1968s specifically. However, the cultural scope of this period, and specifically the cinema produced from the DEFA studios, are spheres capable of contradicting the discourse of little social effervescence. The main objective of project is to revisit the theme through the cultural and cinematographic context, to investigate the emergence of this tension and its unfolding. For this purpose it will be used one censored film: Die Russen Kommen (The Russians Are Coming), directed by Heiner Carow in 1968. (AU)