Bertolt Brecht and Béla Balázs: Paradoxes of exile

The sometimes parallel, sometimes conflicting careers of Bertolt Brecht and Béla Balázs are examined through the focus of their engagements with film and in the context of their experience of exile. Both were anti-fascist and at least nominally communist; yet neither was fully accepted by the communist governments of East Germany (in Brecht's case) and post-World War II Hungary (in the case of Balázs) and both were subjected to official criticism and censorship despite their attempts to conform to political orthodoxy.