Animation Before Unification

DEFA Animation Nr. 1 / Ohne Worte

By the time the DEFA Studio for Animation Film closed in 1992, it had produced more than 800 shorts in a wide variety of styles and techniques. The 16 animation films included in this collection were directed by 8 different animators between 1974 and 1990, and give a taste of animation production in East Germany.

Established in 1955, the studio initially produced shorts exclusively for children. During the 1970s and '80s, however, films targeting older audiences became more common. The animation films presented on this DVD contain elements of social and political satire that would never have been allowed in live-action films. In 2005, Consequence, The Full Circle, and The Monument were screened at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of our film series, Rebels with a Cause: the Cinema of East Germany.

• Drum Beat (Sacher, 1974)
• Star and Flower (Sacher, 1978)
• Loneliness (Sacher, 1979)
• Variants (Georgi, 1979)
• The Rescue (Hamacher, 1980)
• Seven Rights of a Viewer (Rasche/Missbauch)
• Mr. Daff Is Shooting a Film (Georgi, 1986)
• Hello (Moser/Rosie, 1984)
• Consequence (Georgi, 1986)
• The Solution (Hamacher, 1987)
• Belly and Soul (Georgi, 1988)
• The Breakdown (Georgi/Stutzner, 1988)
• The Full Circle (Georgi, 1988)
• The Monument (Geori/Stutzner, 1989)
• Sunday (Georgi/Stutzner, 1989)
• Island Joke (Stutzner, 1990)