The upheavals of 1989/90 continue to resonate today. Biographical ruptures, new freedoms and social upheaval in the 1990s continue to shape political culture across Central and Eastern Europe. More than three decades later, a young generation of filmmakers is exploring a decade they themselves barely experienced first-hand. With Transformation without End? – Cinematic Perspectives on the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Its Aftermath, the 36th FilmFestival Cottbus (3–8 November 2026) brings films from the period into dialogue with contemporary perspectives on the post-socialist era.
Film pairings from different countries explore the hopes, ruptures and contradictions of those years. From the Baltic states, documentary classic IS IT EASY TO BE YOUNG? (Juris Podnieks, 1986), about Latvian youth subculture during the final years of the Soviet Union, meets the Lithuanian box-office hit THE SOUTHERN CHRONICLES (Ignas Miškinis, 2024). The coming-of-age love story takes audiences into Lithuania in the 1990s, exploring a period marked by new beginnings, disillusionment and emerging class divisions.
Two Slovak gangster comedies approach the gold-rush atmosphere of the era with dark humour: ON A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE (Štefan Semjan, 1994) follows three petty criminals through Bratislava in the early post-socialist years, while INVALID (Jonáš Karásek, 2023), made three decades later, sends a cantankerous outsider down a similarly wayward path. From Hungary, István Szabó’s classic DEAR EMMA, SWEET BÖBE (1991), about two Russian teachers forced to completely rebuild their lives, is paired with the animated railroad movie PELIKAN BLUE (László Csáki, 2023) – a recollection of what it felt like to have little money but, finally, the freedom to travel and explore the world.
In eastern Germany, HERZSPRUNG (Helke Misselwitz, 1992) meets MORGEN VOR LANGER ZEIT (Luise Donschen, 2026). Misselwitz tells the story of Johanna, who seeks a new beginning in a small Brandenburg town after losing her job. Luise Donschen’s film begins in 1990: its protagonist Patty, played by Gerti Drassl, disappears in the Kyffhäuser Mountains amid the turmoil of German reunification, only to reappear 30 years later. Helke Misselwitz will personally present HERZSPRUNG in Cottbus.
The extent to which the developments of that period continue to resonate in the present is explored in DIE KLASSE VON 1990 (Sonja Hilberger, RP Kahl, 2026). The documentary brings together former acting students who fought to save their drama school in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1990 while witnessing the rise of right-wing extremism on their doorstep. The series is complemented by oral history films made in Cottbus, Lübeck and Neuruppin, in which school students ask contemporary witnesses about their memories of the opening of the border and life in the GDR.
During the festival week, young people from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany will also come together in Cottbus to jointly explore the post-socialist era. The film series and the multi-day youth workshop are funded by The Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany.
80 Years of DEFA: A Focus on Sorbian Filmmaking
In the Homeland | Domownja | Domizna section, the FFC marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of DEFA by highlighting a lesser-known chapter of its history: Sorbian filmmaking. Between 1980 and 1990, almost 40 films were produced by the Produktionsgruppe Sorbischer Film / Serbska filmowa skupina (Sorbian Film Production Group) in Bautzen.
Three productions will be screened in Cottbus: WNUČKI ŁUŽIČANOW – DIE ENKEL DER LUSITZER (Armin Georgi, 1967), GAŽ WĚTŠYK DUJO … / UND AUF STEHT DIE WAHRHEIT (Toni Bruk, 1984) and WOPYT / UNRUHE (Toni Bruk, 1984). Toni Bruk’s two films will be shown in their Lower and Upper Sorbian-language versions respectively, with simultaneous German interpretation.
The 36th FilmFestival Cottbus
From 3 to 8 November 2026, FilmFestival Cottbus will present 147 films from 40 (co-)production countries across three competitions and numerous other sections. The complete festival programme will be published in mid-October.
