The Divided Heaven

The Divided Heaven



East German cinema is dramatically different from any cinema the 21st century is used to. We tend to forget about the complete separation that the Berlin Wall caused. Film was “a state-controlled industry” (Hake 121). The state only approved movies that advanced “the building of a socialist society” (119). There was even a point during the 1960s where they, the Eleventh Plenary of the Central Committee, banned many films that were considered skeptic, nihilistic, and subjective (124).

The Divided Heaven is a film that showcases this division between the East and the West as an analogy of a love story. After analyzing this movie with the understanding that the movie had to get by the tough censors, it was no wonder this film was banned as one of the Rabbit Films (so nicknamed because one of the banned films was called I Am the Rabbit). A woman falls in love with an older man because he has a different way of looking at things, being older and wiser and having plainly different ways of seeing the world. When the magic seems to wear off and the man becomes disillusioned by the uses of one of his chemical compounds, he leaves for the West. He thinks she will follow, but she doesn’t. This is clearly a symbolic representation of the East, showing that he was bad for leaving his beloved East and that only unhappy people live in the West.. The filmmaker undoubtedly focuses on the side of the woman, trying to expose the dangers of falling in love with someone just because they think differently. This analogy goes to the root of the issue that socialism always looks good on paper. Equality, money, and being taken care of are high qualities. After examining the surface, one sees the limitations and the liberties that are taken in this perspective.