Marking the 60th anniversary of the foundation of DEFA (the state-owned film company of the German Democratic Republic), a retrospective on the East-German film industry will be held in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Beer-Sheba on 11 – 25 November 2007.

The program of the event includes screening of new copies of rare East German films in the cinematheques, as well as lectures and discussions with filmmakers and scholars.

On 19 November 2007, the Richard Koebner-Minerva Center will proudly host Prof. Sabine Hake of the University of Texas, Austin, who will talk about “Melancholy Antifascism: The Image of Fascism in post-WWII European Films” at the Hebrew University. Following the lecture, students and scholars will hold a round table discussion on the history of cinema in East Germany. For more information and invitations, please contact Dr. Ofer Ashkenazi: ofer.ashkenazi@mail.huji.ac.il.

The event takes place with the kind cooperation of the cinematheques in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Haifa, and with the support of the Bucerius Institute of Contemporary German History and Society (University of Haifa), the Minerva Institute for German Studies (Tel-Aviv University), the Center for German Studies (Ben-Gurion University), and the Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History (The Hebrew University).

See also the coverage in the Israeli press. On 11 November 2007, Haaretz online has published an article on the DEFA event.