Eastern trails: The Western at Defa - Limited Edition (Blu-Ray) import

A close relation to the Spaghetti Western, Indianerfilme (later called “Red Westerns” due to their politics)were some of the most popular genre movies produced by East Germany’s state-operated film studio, DEFA. Focusing on the struggles of indigenous tribes against European settlers, they disrupted the frontier myths central to the American Western and made a bonafide superstar of Gojko Mitić, whose appearances in a long line of action-packed Westerns for DEFAmade him one of the most famous faces in Europe. Mitić stars in all four of the films presented here: Chingachgook the Great Serpent, Fatal Error, Apaches and Blood Brothers.

Based on James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer, Chingachgook the Great Serpent sees the eponymous Mohican set out to rescue his kidnapped bride-to-be (Andrea Drahota) with the help of a hunter known as Deerslayer (Rolf Römer). In Fatal Error, Native Americans living at the foot of the Rocky Mountains come to regret doing business with the corrupt Wyoming Oil Company. Apaches follows a young warrior as he sets out to avenge the massacre of his tribe at the hands of a ruthless mercenary (Milan Beli). Finally, Blood Brothers stars Dean Reed – an actor and singer-songwriter nicknamed the “Red Elvis” – as an American deserter who comes to fight alongside a Native American tribe.

Following the enormous success of The Sons of Great Bear in 1966, East Germany’s series of Indianerfilme remained popular for the next two decades, finding enthusiastic audiences throughout Central and Eastern Europe and even as far afield as Cuba. The Masters of Cinema Series is thrilled to present a selection of DEFA’s “Red Westerns” on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

Format: UK Limited Edition Blu-Ray

Director: Various

Actors: Various

Regional Code: B / Pal

Languages: German

Subtitles: English

Picture Format: 16x9 Widescreen

Length: 6 Hours 6 Minutes

Extras:

• Limited Edition of 2,000 copies
• Limited edition hardbound slipcase and interior packaging featuring new artwork by Colin Murdoch
• All four films presented in 1080p HD from restorations by the DEFA Foundation
• Original German soundtracks | Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
• New audio commentary on Apaches by film historian Michael Brooke
• Singing Cowboy – new interview on Dean Reed and Blood Brothers with East German cinema expert Seán Allan, co-editor of Re-Imagining DEFA
• Old West, New Perspective – new video essay on depictions of American history in DEFA’s Indianerfilme by Western scholar Jenny Barrett, author of Shooting the Civil War
• Archival musical performance by Dean Reed
• Limited Edition collector’s book featuring part one of a new extended essay on the history of the DEFA Indianerfilme by Lee Broughton, author of The Euro-Western