''East Side Story'' is a 1997 documentary directed by

Dana Ranga Dana Ranga (born 1964 in Bucharest) is a Romanian writer and film director, currently living and working in Berlin. Life Dana Ranga was born in 1964 in Bucharest. Initially, she studied medicine at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and P ...

. The film documents the

Soviet Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

musical genre, which first appeared under

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

and spread to Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe. The film features interviews with actors, film historians, and audience members who reminisce on these unlikely films and their impact on Soviet Bloc life.

Synopsis

The film first looks at

Grigori Alexandrov Grigori Vasilyevich Aleksandrov or Alexandrov (russian: Григо́рий Васи́льевич Алекса́ндров; original family name was Мормоненко or Mormonenko; 23 January 1903 – 16 December 1983) was a prominent Soviet ...

, a director who made his career in the 1930s musicals. He directed the unlikely hit ''

Jolly Fellows ''Jolly Fellows'' (russian: Весёлые ребята, Vesyolye rebyata), also translated as ''Happy-Go-Lucky Guys'', ''Moscow Laughs'' and ''Jazz Comedy'', is a 1934 Soviet Union, Soviet musical film, directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and starri ...

'' (1934), which had the backing of

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

and the personal approval of Stalin. Alexandrov went on to create other propagandistic musicals, including '' Volga, Volga'' (1938), which details the story of peasants who boat to Moscow on the River Volga to become singers. These musicals starred his wife,

Lyubov Orlova Lyubov Petrovna Orlova (russian: link=no, Любовь Петровна Орлова ; – 26 January 1975) was a Soviet and Russian actress, singer, dancer and People's Artist of the USSR (1950). Life and career She was born to a family o ...

. Next, the film examines other East European musical films, concentrating on the films of

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...

studio, including the wildly successful '' My Wife Wants to Sing'' (1958), '' Midnight Revue'' (1962), '' Beloved White Mouse'' (1964), and '' Hot Summer'' (1968). Many of the films were quite popular, but relatively few were made because their themes did not fit comfortably with the canons of

Socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

Awards and nominations

East Side Story was nominated for the Cultural Film award at Marseille Festival of Documentary Film in 1998.

References

External links

* 1997 films German documentary films 1997 documentary films Documentary films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era Documentary films about theatre Documentary films about music and musicians 1990s English-language films 1990s German films {{arts-documentary-film-stub