Before the Wall Came Down: Soviet and East European Film Makers Working in the West

This text presents the proceedings of a conference on the topic Soviet and East European Film Makers Working in the West held at McMaster University, Ontario, in March 1989. All the conference papers are included as well as an edited summary of discussions that took place after each session. The result is a volume that studies both the contribution of particular individuals to Western European and North American film industries over the past two decades and raises questions of considerable importance as to the future development of cinema as a whole. The session covered Soviet, Polish, Yugoslav, Czech and Hungarian cinema, with particular emphasis on the films made by Anrei Tarkovsky, Dusan Makaveyev, Milos Forman and Jerzy Skolimowski, both in their native countries and in Western Europe and North America.