SUMMER SCHEDULE! Doors open 8.30PM. Jeffrey's intro + film start 30 minutes later than usual, at 9PM
13th of August happens to be the day the DEFA studios in East Germany (GDR) were inaugurated. We'll be at Cavia to celebrate the 37th anniversary of this slowly vanishing treasure cove of movies.

UNSER KURZES LEBEN   1980 (Our Short Life) Directed by Lothar Warneke 113 minutes In German with English subtitles

Here is another one of those discreet gems from the former GDR (East Germany). And like many films from that period of time, it is largely centred on the plight of a woman. In the West Bloc, women were being mostly delegated to stereotyped roles, but in East Germany women were totally embraced by society, and the cinema reflected this emancipation.
The story revolves around Franziska, a female architect and urban planner who dreams of a city that is not only practical, but that focuses on a sense of community, history and art. She is also a bit wild, is thirsty for a love that hasn't come, and still believes in living fully against all odds. In a way, the story isn't the main interest, but rather the acute understanding of the female situation, along with the subtleness of the East German sensibility. These GDR movies have an incredible depth of humanity. Pretty hard to believe, when we are told how harsh and cold-blooded the East-bloc was, no? Sure, you see elements of bureaucracy here, but you also see a sense of poetry, humanity and spirited provocation. The movie is based on the novel Franziska Linkerhand, a heavily autobiographical book by Brigitte Reimann, who was one of the best loved writers in the GDR.
 
So much precious GDR cinema has gone missing, eclipsed by the self-centered, all-pervasive commercialism of today, that loves nothing more than to wipe away the past. Wow, it's so wonderful to dig these gems out again and give them a place on the screen...