One of the most fascinating aspects of film studies is how it can explain more about the nature of closed societies. In Eastern Europe, artists, intellectuals, and entertainers are now free to create film outside the direct control of the state. This unique handbook convincingly shows how much film art was still being produced behind the Iron Curtain even during such repressive periods as those under Stalin and Brezhnev. Thomas J. Slater has compiled a valuable history of cinematic evolution in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through the use of detailed historiographical essays for each country.

The dramatic changes in the political and economic structures of Eastern Europe that occurred during 1989-90 have revealed even more about courageous filmmakers who worked under difficult conditions. Many were still able to produce artistically important films, but filmmakers were often forced to become propagandizers for their authoritarian governments. This book outlines the film achievements in the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, East Germany, Romania, and Bulgaria, and how their people responded to the films they were allowed to see. An appendix contains a chronology of major historical, cultural, and film events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the past 100 years. This book will be of great value to scholars not only of film studies, but also of history, social and political science, communications, culture, and the fine arts. The handbook is an excellent addition to the collections of academic and public libraries and provides a vital listing for film historians and filmmakers.