Ostern

Context and origins

American Westerns were among the US films imported into the early Soviet Union. As a result, certain Soviet films at the time are seen to incorporate Western elements. For example, the image of the Western cowboy is used to symbolize the United States and the West as a whole in the Soviet silent comedy The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924). Red Devils is a revolutionary action film that also borrows from the Western genre. As cultural restrictions tightened during the Stalinist era, however, Western-inspired films in the Soviet Union became rare. However, Stalin was an avid enjoyer of Hollywood Western films, and is argued by some to have desired the Western genre within the Soviet Union.

Emergence of the Ostern genre

1957's Miles of Fire is one of the earliest examples of a Soviet Western as it was released years before the Ostern genre became formalized and prevalent. The Western genre saw a resurgence in the Soviet Union in the 1960s, largely resulting from the Khrushchev Thaw. In 1962, the USSR allowed for the screening of certain US and foreign films. The Magnificent Seven, an American Western starring Steve McQueen, become the most successful of these films commercially, becoming an instant cult classic amongst Soviet moviegoers. The overwhelming popularity and commercial demand of films like The Magnificent Seven enticed Soviet filmmakers and state-run film institutions to experiment with Western elements in their own productions, resulting in the creation of the Soviet Western.

The Czechoslovak comedy Lemonade Joe, or the Horse Opera (1964) gained popularity amongst Soviet citizens and those in the Eastern Bloc. Though the film is largely a parody of the Western genre, its commercial success nonetheless furthered the familiarity of Western tropes within the Eastern Bloc and the general Soviet audience.

Karl May's Treasure of the Silver Lake, West Germany, co-production with Yugoslavia, was seminal for the beginning of the era of German Red Westerns. The film prompted a highly successful series of Indianerfilme ("Indian Films") about Winnetou and others, produced by the East German DEFA studios. (see Native American Hobbyism in Germany).

A considerable strain into the genre was added by Romanian cinematographers, which included adaptations of Fenimore Cooper stories, with many of them being co-productions with Western directors.

White Sun of the Desert (1970) stands out as the quintessential Ostern, with its release considered by some to usher in the "golden era" of Soviet Western film. Set in rural Turkmenistan, the film incorporates many elemental Western characteristics, namely wide shots of empty skies and nature, transportation via horse and leather saddle, and the lone stoic protagonist. The film quickly obtained a cult-like status, with multiple catchphrases from the film making its way into casual conversation.

Other monikers in the genre

Gibanica Western

"Gibanica Western" was a short-lived term for the Yugoslav equivalent of the Ostern, more commonly known as partisan film and, sometimes, the Partisan Western. They were made in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and were about the partisans in World War II. Gibanica is a traditional Balkan pastry, and the name of the genre is dubbed in an analogy with "spaghetti Western".

Goulash Western

The Goulash Westerns are the Easterns of Hungarian director György Szomjas. He directed two films (The Wind Blows Under Your Feet and Wrong-Doers) in the 1970s, shot in the Hortobágy National Park, the best approximation of wastelands he could find in the country.

Notable Red Westerns and Osterns

• 1924: The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks, a silent Soviet comedy film. An American millionaire hires a cowboy for his travel across the Soviet Union, but Soviet crooks fool them. Plenty of chases and shootings. Critics consider it the beginning of a "golden age" of Soviet cinema.
• 1925: Red Devils, Soviet;
• 1937: The Thirteen, Soviet; allegedly shot on an order of Joseph Stalin, who was a fan of Westerns
• 1950: Brave People, Soviet; Norbert Franz hesitatingly writes that it had "little to do more with Westerns than the horses used".
• 1957: Miles of Fire, Soviet
• 1962: Treasure of the Silver Lake, West Germany, co-production with Yugoslavia; marks the beginning of the era of West German Westerns
• 1964: Lemonade Joe, Czechoslovakia
• 1966, The Sons of Great Bear, East Germany :1966: The Elusive Avengers, a remake of Red Devils
• 1967: Chingachgook, die große Schlange, East Germany
• 1968: Spur des Falken, East Germany :1968: Weiße Wölfe, East Germany
• 1970: White Sun of the Desert, Soviet; "a slightly ironic Eastern", a box office hit with over 34 million viewers that year :1970: **, Tajik SSR :1970: :ru:Конец атамана, Kazakh SSR; some classify it as Eastern, but on shaky grounds. It had three sequels with the same lead character, chekist Chadyarov
• 1971: Dauria (two parts)
• 1972: The Seventh Bullet, Uzbek SSR
• 1973: The Headless Horseman, Soviet-Cuban Red Western
• 1974: At Home among Strangers
• 1976 (translated as "The Wind Blows Under Your Feet" or "The Wind is Whistling under Their Feet"), "Goulash Western" of György Szomjas
• 1979 , "Goulash Western" of György Szomjas
• 1979: The Bodyguard, Tajik SSR
• 1981: The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians (Romania) :1981: comedy Western (tagged for ages 10 and up); "a failed attempt of a parody of Westerns for children"
• 1987: A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines (USSR, 1987)
• 1993: The Wild East, Kazakhstan; postapocalyptic Eastern
• 1995: Wolf Blood

References

References

1. {{ill. Norbert Franz. de. Norbert Franz (Slawist), (2020). [https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/46939/file/franz_hollywood.pdf ''Hollywood - a Challenge for the Soviet Cinema: Four Essays''], Germany: Universitätsverlag Potsdam.
2. Lavrentiev, Sergey "Red Westerns", in Klein, Thomas/Ritzer, Ivo/Schulze, Peter W. (eds.) Crossing Frontiers. Intercultural Perspectives on the Western. Marburg: Schüren, 2012.
3. Cinema in the Cold War pp. 81
4. Franz, N. (2020) p. 166
5. Franz, N. (2020) p. 168
6. The East German ''[[The Sons of the Great Bear]]'' (1966) was a seminal Red Western that turned the traditional American "Cowboy and Indian" conventions on their head, casting the Native Americans as the heroes and the American Army as the villains, a motif inspired by highly successful German Osterns. These films were immensely popular among the East German audience, furthering the widespread German fascination of Native American cultureBanhegyi, A. (2012). ''Where marx meets osceola: Ideology and mythology in the eastern bloc western''.
7. International Westerns: Re-Locating the Frontier. United Kingdom, Scarecrow Press, 2013.
8. International Westerns pp. 303-304
9. (2013-10-21). "The Psychology of Friendship and Enmity: Relationships in Love, Work, Politics, and War [2 volumes]". Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
10. Sonja Simonyi, [https://framescinemajournal.com/article/csikos-puszta-goulash-hungarian-frontier-imaginaries-in-the-wind-blows-under-your-feet-and-bradys-escape Csikós, Puszta, Goulash: Hungarian Frontier Imaginaries in 'The Wind Blows under Your Feet' and 'Brady's Escape']
11. Franz, N. (2020) p. 162
12. Franz, N. (2020) p. 164
13. Sergey Lavrentiev, [https://framescinemajournal.com/article/the-balkan-westerns-of-the-sixties/ The Balkan Westerns of the Sixties]
14. Franz, N. (2020) p. 167
15. Franz, N. (2020) p. 169
16. Franz, N. (2020) p. 170
17. Franz, N. (2020) p. 175
18. Franz, N. (2020) pp. 176, 1977
19. Franz, N. (2020) p. 177
20. Franz, N. (2020) pp. 163, 178
21. Franz, N. (2020) p. 179
22. Franz, N. (2020) p. 182
23. [https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/20098/sing-cowboy-sing Sing, Cowboy, sing]
24. Franz, N. (2020) p. 187
25. Franz, N. (2020) p. 185