Wiesbaden/Frankfurt, 20 March 2025
80 Years after WWII – Missing Images from Odesa to Dakar
In the film series “80 Years after WW2 – Missing Images from Odesa to Dakar”, goEast presents a selection of extraordinary historical feature films which offer under-represented perspectives of the Second World War, accompanied by an interdisciplinary panel discussion. The series, made possible with the generous support of the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany, examines the relationship between film and memory culture and asks – in reference to Michael Rothberg’s concept – whether multidirectional memory (and, by extension, film curation) is truly possible.
Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Das Boot – popular large-scale film productions about the Second World War have shaped the Western European recollection of the war and our remembrance culture. However, those who grew up in the former GDR often have entirely different cinematic points of reference. The classic war productions from the USSR only rarely show the Holocaust, focussing most often on the heroic feats of the Red Army. The deportation of minorities such as the Kalmyks, Crimean Tartars or Volga Germans under Stalin are absent in Soviet film history and only began to be examined, albeit minimally, in the wake of Perestroika and Glasnost. In many African countries, on the other hand, domestic film productions hardly ever feature images related to the Second World War. Further still, on the whole, few films about the Pacific War as seen from an Asian perspective are shown in Western European cinemas. What are the consequences of these “missing images” when it comes to our cultures of remembrance?
The film series begins with Mark Donskoi’s Soviet war drama THE TARAS FAMILY (NEPOKORENNYE, USSR 1945), the first ever feature film world-wide to treat the annihilation of the Jewish population in the Second World War. The director, born into a Jewish family in Odesa, gained notoriety above all for his film adaptations of the works of Maxim Gorky – however, he was also active as a film educator in the 1960s. During that period, the USSR trained a great number of students from the so-called third world. Mark Donskoi’s students included one Ousmane Sembène, who at the time was already considered one of the most brilliant intellectuals and writers in his home country of Senegal. To this day, Sembène remains one of the few filmmakers to depict the Second World War from an African perspective. goEast will be showing a newly restored and digitized version (from 2023) of his CAMP DE THIAROYE (SEN, DZA, TUN 1988) – a film in which the aesthetic influences of the Soviet war film are palpable. The story is set in 1944 in French West Africa: West-African colonial soldiers, former prisoners of war, return from captivity in Europe and are housed in the Thiaroye military encampment. When the French colonial administration refuses to pay them the promised compensation, protests erupt. The reaction is swift and brutal: colonial troops and French gendarmes massacre the demonstrators. CAMP DE THIAROYE was not shown in France until 1998.
The Indonesian anti-colonial chamber drama THE BARBED-WIRE FENCE (PAGAR KAWAT BERDURI, IDN 1961), directed by Asrul Sani, also depicts the ambivalent relationship between Europe and its colonies in the Second World War. There were 3.5 million civilian victims in the Dutch East Indies in the period between 1939 and 1945. After the Japanese surrender, a war of national liberation broke out, which would eventually lead to Indonesian independence in 1949. THE BARBED-WIRE FENCE depicts how Koenen, the new commander of a prison camp, deals with his new assignment. In Europe, the Dutchman fought in the underground resistance against the Nazis. Now, in his role as prison commander, he oversees a group of Indonesian anti-colonial revolutionaries. Gradually, a friendship takes shape between Officer Koenen and Parman, one of the inmates. The men have lively discussions about freedom, independence and oppression – subjects that have not lost any of their relevance even 80 years after the end of the Second World War.
During the Cold War, Soviet education of students from the socialist “brother states” and the countries of the third world followed an anti-imperialist agenda. However, the Soviet Union’s own imperialism and the persecution and oppression of minorities in their own country went unrecognized and thus also untreated in cinema for a long time as well. With few exceptions, the war films of the Soviet Union also ignored the Holocaust. The memory culture of the “Eastern Bloc” focussed on the role of the Red Army and resistance to fascism. The film by the previously mentioned Mark Donskoy disappeared into the archives after 1948 and was not screened again until the era of Perestroika and Glasnost. At that time, the first films treating the persecution of ethnic minorities under Stalin also began to appear – primarily produced by the Baltic film studios. Ada Neretniece’s drama DIVINATION ON THE LAMB’S SHOULDER (GADANIE NA BARANEY LOPATKE, Latvian SSR 1988), which features a main protagonist from the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Republic, will be shown at goEast this year as well. The Oirat-Kalmyk, a Buddhist people, were almost entirely deported in 1944. Neretniece’s film depicts a Siberian village in the post-war period where displaced individuals from across the entire Soviet Union live together. Grandfather Anju (played by Maksim Munzuk, familiar as the lead actor from Kurosawa’s DERSU UZALA), who was deported from Kalmykia during the Second World War, now lives in the village with his grandson Lidji. One day, a fellow villager is found murdered. Although innocent, Grandfather Anju immediately becomes a suspect and is arrested by the local police, leaving little Lidji to fend for himself.
HAYTARMA (UKR 2013), directed by Akhtem Seitablaev, treats the Stalinist deportations directly. Ahmet Khan Sultan, a Red Army pilot twice decorated for his heroism in the Great Patriotic War, returns, on leave from the front, to his hometown of Alupka in May 1944. There he witnesses the deportation of the Crimean Tartars – including his own family. HAYTARMA (“return” in English) is at once the first Crimean-Tartar film and the first feature film about this crime. Since the 1990s, approximately 280,000 Crimean Tartars have returned to the Crimean Peninsula. Alas, for many of them Russia’s annexation of the territory has meant the return of war and repression.
Two other directors whose paths are intertwined with the war, both of whom studied in Moscow, are featured here: namely, Polish filmmaker Jerzy Hoffman and Germany’s Konrad Wolf. Hoffman’s Eastern noir THE LAW AND THE FIST (PRAWO I PIĘŚĆ, POL 1964) is set in 1945. Protagonist Andrzej Kenig is liberated from a concentration camp. Shortly thereafter, he joins a group of volunteers who are sent to an abandoned city in the former German Eastern territories to prevent looting. Alas, his comrades show themselves to be corrupt marauders. The displacement of the German population and the resettlement of the Poles from the Eastern territories incorporated into the USSR were taboo subjects in 1964. Konrad Wolf, born in 1925 as the son of German-Jewish communists, grew up in the Soviet Union. At the age of 17, he joined the Red Army and was among the troops that took Berlin in 1945. He treated these experiences in his classic I WAS NINETEEN (ICH WAR NEUNZEHN, GDR 1968), a DEFA production with a record budget. Wolf’s alter ego, Gregor Hecker, becomes the commander of Bernau in 1945, liberates prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and encounters a broken homeland whose language he speaks in spite of the fact that he did not grow up there.
Each screening will feature an introduction providing historical and specific film-historical context. In the scope of a panel discussion under the title THE IMPACT OF MISSING IMAGES IN A VISUAL WORLD, Chingis Azydov (researcher Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage), Dr. Fabian Schmidt (film scholar and Holocaust researcher, Film University Babelsberg), Lisabona Rahman (curator, researcher and film archivist, Jakarta/Berlin) and Barbara Wurm (Slavicist, Section Head of Berlinale FORUM) will discuss the (im)possibility of a multidirectional film program and shed light on the interplay between film images and memory culture.
Matinee: Silent Film Concert SUZY SAXOPHONE on Sunday, 27 April
The film histories of Germany and Eastern Europe are closely linked historically. The turbulent comedy of mistaken identity SUZY SAXOPHONE (DEU 1928) is a prime example. This UFA production was shot in Berlin, with iconic actress Anny Ondra (born Anna Ondrakova in Tarnow, Galicia) in the lead role, and was staged by Czech director Carl (Karel) Lamač. The German original version of this silent film classic dating from 1928 is considered lost. At the Sunday Matinee on 27 April, a new restoration by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum will be screened, with live musical accompaniment from Uwe Oberg (piano) and Ulrike Schwarz (saxophone / flute) and an introduction by Tomáš Hubáček (Národní filmový archiv) and Thomas Worschech (DFF Film Archive). Suzy is a dancer in a revue theatre, but she would rather be a teacher. Her girlfriend Anny dreams of a career as a showgirl, but Anny’s father, Baron von Aspen, is strictly opposed to the notion. When Suzy and Anny travel to London at the same time, they spontaneously resolve to switch places. The result is intoxicating Jazz-Age cinema, staged with humour, energy and a strong sense of rhythm. goEast is presenting a total of two very special silent film concerts in 2025. The festival opening on Wednesday, 23 April, features a screening of MY GRANDMOTHER (CHEMI BEBIA, 1928) with live music by the Finnish experimental band CLEANING WOMEN.
MEET THE EAST – The goEast Anniversary Program
goEast takes a look back at 25 years of festival history with a small but excellent program featuring films both old and new, special guests and an exhibition. Film guests from Germany meet colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe .
Iconic director Margarethe von Trotta will present her epic revolutionary costume drama ROSA LUXEMBURG (CSK, DEU 1986), which treats the life of the German-Polish socialist, and speak about art, politics, feminism and her personal relationship to Poland following the screening. A special anniversary edition wouldn’t be complete without the Balkan network YUGORETTEN, represented this year by actor/director and author Mateja Meded and director Boris Hadžija . In their programs, they grapple with the question of Yugoslavian (and ex-Yugoslavian) identity, together with specially invited guests. In this connection, they will be presenting Nataša Urban’s fast-paced film THE ECLIPSE (Norway, 2022) at Caligari FilmBühne. During the festival week, the Yugoretten will also be extending an invitation to a panel discussion in the Clubhouse at Altes Gericht, featuring guests like multi-award-winning Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić (a former goEast Portrait subject), Symposium curator Asja Makarević and Nataša Urban. Two recent Ukrainian films are part of the anniversary program as well. Among them retro-futuristic sci-fi comedy U ARE THE UNIVERSE (UKR 2024), directed by Pavlo Ostrikov, in which space trucker Andriy Melnyk lives all by himself on a spaceship transporting radioactive waste from Earth to Jupiter’s moon Callisto His record collection helps him to enjoy the solitude of his trucker existence. Alas, when the Earth explodes one day, Andriy is suddenly the last human in outer space. The Ukrainian film team has managed to make a highly original genre film in the midst of a war. If he is granted an international travel permit, director Pavlo Ostrikov will be able to join the goEast anniversary celebration in Wiesbaden. Kateryna Gornostai’s remarkable mosaic documentary TIMESTAMP (STRICHKA CHASU, UKR, LUX, NLD, FRA 2025), which celebrated its world premiere in the Competition section of this year’s Berlinale, also hails from Ukraine. After the war started, it was decided to keep normal school operations going to enable children and young adults to maintain at least a part of their accustomed routines from peacetime. The film provides insight into the effects of the war on the everyday lives of students and teachers.
The anniversary film program concludes with a classic shown from 35mm at Caligari FilmBühne: KILL ME SOFTLY (Ubij me nezno, Yugoslavia 1979) by Slovenian director Bostjan Hladnik. Among participants of the 2024 Symposium “The other Queers” this film was the rediscovery of the year. In former Yugoslavia the erotic crime comedy, with its infectious disco soundtrack, campy dialogues and unexpected nudity becamse a box office hit.
The special anniversary program also includes the exhibition 25X25, which presents influential personalities from the Central and Eastern European film scene in the DFF foyer in Frankfurt am Main from 15 April to 15 Mai 2025. goEast has hosted film legends like Agnieszka Holland, Kira Muratova, István Szabó or Radu Jude over the past 25 years. In spite of their success on the international festival circuit, the big names of Central and Eastern European cinema are quite often unfamiliar to German audiences. The exhibition 25×25 in Frankfurt presents pictures from goEast festival photographers alongside the biographies and impressive filmographies of the filmmakers. In addition, a multimedia installation, the so-called Cinecube, will show film clips from award-winning goEast films in a loop.
Accreditation
Members of the press can apply now for accreditation for the 25th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film here. During the festival period, accredited industry guests and members of the press receive access to an online media library featuring an extensive selection of festival programming.
goEast Press Conference
The press conference will take place on Wednesday, 16 April, hybrid at 11 am in Frankfurt at the DFF cinema. Please RSVP at the contact address below.
Advance Ticket Sales
Advance tickets for film screenings as well as individual events will be available starting Thursday, 3 April – both online (see here) and at the advance ticketing box office in Wiesbaden’s central tourist information bureau. During the festival week, tickets can be acquired online, at all festival venues and in the new Festival Centre at Wiesbaden’s Altes Gericht. You can find more detailed information on where and how to purchase advance tickets here.
The full program for the 25th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be revealed in March.
goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the State Capital Wiesbaden, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany, the Hessen Film and Media Academy (hFMA) and the solidarity initiative of the German Catholics with the people in Central and Eastern Europe Renovabis. Primary media partners include 3sat, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
You can find images related to the festival in our download section.
The full program for the 25th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be revealed in March.
goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the State Capital Wiesbaden, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany and the solidarity initiative of the German Catholics with the people in Central and Eastern Europe Renovabis. Primary media partners include 3sat, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.