DIVIDED HEAVEN (Dir. Konrad Wolf, East Germany, 1964.)
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
DIVIDED HEAVEN (Dir. Konrad Wolf, East Germany, 1964.)
The division of Germany and, in particular, the Berlin Wall were a recurrent motif in Western films from the Cold War era, from escape thrillers to classics of spy fiction whose images continue to inform today’s popular culture. What is much less remembered is that these themes were also filmed on the other side of the ‘iron curtain’, with a remarkably different perspective and sensibility. After an initial commitment to validating official policy, East German cinema increasingly focused on the personal costs of forced separation, culminating most successfully in 1964’s Divided Heaven. Adapting a best-seller by Christa Wolf (who co-wrote the screenplay) and adopting an aesthetically daring stream-of-consciousness narrative, this romantic drama offers an intimate, nuanced take on the German division.
The film will be introduced by Rui Lopes, Lecturer in European History at Birkbeck’s Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.
Contact name:
Matthew Barrington