DEFA "Märchenfilme" as Brechtian Parables: Gerhard Klein's "Die Geschichte vom armen Hassan" and Konrad Petzold's "Das Kleid"

The term "Brechtian Cinema" often refers to European New Waves and feminist filmmaking and less so to DEFA pictures. However, there is a direct link, because some key DEFA actors werre in the Berliner Ensemble and there was an interchange of personnel and dramaturgy. This essay has selected two DEFA fairy-tale films that most representatively exemplify Brechtian aesthetic, politics and ethics: Gerhard Klein's "Die Geschichte vom armen Hassan" (1958), made in the form of Brecht's "Lehrstücke," and Konrad Petzold's "Das Kleid" (1961/premiered in 1991). "Das Kleid" not only echoes Brecht's anti-Stalinist criticism by quoting from his poem "The Solution," but stylistically also follows the presepts of Brecht's epic theater. Made shortly after Brecht's death, both films can be considered Brechtian parables, a genre that Brecht himself often used in his plays. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]