https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFA_Indianerfilm
DEFA Indianerfilme (“DEFA Indian films”) was a series of adventure and western films (“Red Westerns”) produced by the GDR DEFA film studio. The name comes from the obsolete term “Indians” for Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Gojko Mitić, at the Summer FIlm Days, 1971
Between 1966 and 1983 DEFA produced 14 films of this type, about the resistance of Native Americans against white invaders. A memorable actor in the series was Yugoslavian (Serbian) actor Gojko Mitić portraying fictional Native Americans (“Indians”), “Winnetou of the East”, who played in 12 of these films.
The films are searchable in the PROGRESS film database.
Films:
Below are the 14 Indianerfilme and a parody. DEFA division “Roter Kreis”
1966: The Sons of Great Bear based on the novel The Sons of the Great Bear
1967: Chingachremoved, The Great Serpent
1968: Spur des Falken, Trail of the Falcon
1969: Weiße Wölfe, White Wolves
1970: Tödlicher Irrtum Fatal error
1971: Osceola
1972: Tecumseh
1973: Apachen, Apaches
1974: Ulzana
1975: Blood Brothers
1978: Severino
DEFA division “Johannisthal”
1979: Blauvogel, Bluebird
1983: Der Scout, The Scout
1985: Atkins
DEFA division “Berlin”
1982: Der lange Ritt zur Schule, children’s comedy, parodying Indianerfilme
Other “Red Western” films of DEFA
1981: Sing, Cowboy, sing, a comedy Western
1988: Präriejäger in Mexiko [Prairie Hunters in Mexico] two-series TV film
See also:
The name comes from the obsolete term “Indians” for Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
The term is not considered obsolete at this point, to my understanding. It’s usage can vary from context to context, and by the preference of individuals to which the label may apply.
the wikipedia page has been 95% done by just one guy, interestingly the second to last edit is someone else removing the word obsolete and then him immediately readding it
Dorkass. The vibe I get is some of the older American Indians being like “you white people came and called us ‘Indians’ for 500 years, and now all of a sudden you feel bad about the dumbshit term the dumbshit Columbus came up with and you are changing it up without even asking us. Fuck off!”
I wonder if this person has the misconception of “don’t call them ‘Indian’, they’re ‘Native American’”, however Native American connotes all native people in Northa and South America, so even in an academic context you are being imprecise.
I mean certainly not by germans who use it very liberally. But I wonder if the movie’s are good? I need to find a counter before my kid is infected with this weird german obsession of native americans. Gojko mitic later appeared in the Bad Segeberger karl may spiele so… idk
DEFA was in the GDR, not in the Soviet Union. It is not a Soviet studio.
corrected o7
Thanks for this! I just checked youtube and the full movie of The Sons of Great Bear is on there and English subbed.
Thanks o7, yeah youtibes great for old soviet movies bcs there’s no copyright on any of them, i always go there first if I cant torrent an hd copy
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
