Rent Beneath the Trees: Folktales at DEFA II (1988)
6h 13min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Possessing an eternally uncanny, weird and phantasmagorical quality, Märchenfilme - or adaptations of popular folk and fairytales by the likes of Wilhelm Hauff, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm - remain the productions that most distinctly characterise the cinema of East Germany and its state-operated film studio, DEFA. Collected here are some of the greatest - and strangest - folktale films made in the German Democratic Republic: 'The Tinderbox' (1959), 'Snow White' (1961), 'Snow White and Rose Red' (1979), 'The Frog King' (1988) and 'The Robe' (1961). In 'The Tinderbox', a young soldier agrees to help a conniving witch in her quest to retrieve a magical tinderbox protected by a guard dog of monstrous proportions. 'Snow White' sees an evil queen task a hunter with murdering her stepdaughter when a magic mirror deems her the most beautiful woman in the land. Then, in 'Snow White and Rose Red', two young sisters encounter a pair of princes who have been transformed into animals by an evil mountain spirit. 'The Frog King' follows a princess who must endure a series of trials to reach the castle of the Frog King, where she hopes to reunite with the handsome prince she once mistreated. Finally, in 'The Robe', two weavers arrive in a town surrounded by an impenetrable wall and are tasked with making garments befitting of a tyrannical ruler in an adaptation of 'The Emperor's New Clothes'. Collected here are some of DEFA's best-known Märchenfilme - including 'The Tinderbox', which was shown in a dubbed version on the BBC as part of the 'Tales from Europe' series - and some true rarities, including 'The Frog King' and 'The Robe', which was put into production in 1961 but not completed and released until after the fall of the Berlin Wall. - Actors:
- Julie Jurištová, Katrin Martin, Pavel Trávníček, Bodo Wolf, Hans-Peter Minetti, Johannes Wieke, Annemone Haase, Hajo Mende, Pedro Hebenstreit, Helmut Schreiber, Erich Löwel, Erik S. Klein, Bertl Haller, Arnim Mühlstädt, Willy Schmitz, Hannes Stelzer, Rolf Ludwig, Heinz Schubert, Rolf Defrank, Hannes Fischer
- Directors:
- Siegfried Hartmann, Walter Beck, Egon Günther, Gottfried Kolditz, Konrad Petzold
- Producers:
- Wolfgang Rennebarth, Siegfried Kabitzke
- Voiced By:
- Roman Kaminski, Gerd Blahuschek, Carl-Martin Spengler, Janina Hartwig, Gerry Wolff
- Writers:
- Margot Beichler, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, Siegfried Hartmann, Hans Christian Andersen, Anneliese Kocialek, Fred Rodrian, Walter Beck, Brigitte Bernert, Manfred Fritzsche, Egon Günther, Günter Kaltofen
- Aka:
- The Tinderbox (Das Feuerzeug) / Snow White (Schneewittchen) / Snow White and Rose Red (Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot) / The Frog King (Froschkönig) / The Robe (Das Kleid)
- Genres:
- Children & Family, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Countries:
- Germany
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 19/10/2026
- Run Time:
- 373 minutes
- Languages:
- English Mono, German LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Various
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- New audio commentary on 'The Tinderbox' by socialist cinema expert Ally Pitts, host of A Russian and Soviet Movie Podcast
- New audio commentary on 'The Robe' by film historian Michael Brooke
- Two Kingdoms - new interview with German cinema expert Rachel Palfreyman on the history of folktales in German culture and their adaptations in West and East Germany
- Mirror, Mirror - new video essay on DEFA's adaptations of 'Snow White' and 'Snow White and Rose Red' by film and animation scholar Sam Summers
- The Emperor's New Clothes (Herbert K. Schulz, 1956) - short stop-motion animation adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen tale by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
- The Fisherman and his Wife (Werner Krauße, 1975) - short stop-motion animation adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
- Beauty and the Beast (Katja Georgi, 1976) - short stop-motion animation adapted from the Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve tale by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
- Disc 1:
- Disc 2:
- Disc 3: