Images of Women in East German Cinema 1972-1982: Socialist Models, Private Dreamers and Rebels

Andrea Rinke's study on the representation of women in East German cinema is a timely addition to a growing but still relatively small number of English-language books on DEFA, as the state-owned and -controlled film production company of the erstwhile German Democratic Republic was called. While during the 1960s, female protagonists come close to the ideal of the socialist personality-they succeed in "male" professions and manage to reconcile high-flying careers with happy family lives-in the 1970s far more ordinary women take center stage: unskilled workers, struggling single mothers and rebels and misfits on the margins of society.