Indianerfilme
by Rob Silberman
(Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival program, April 10-13, 1997)

No films are distinctly more American than Westerns. Yet their worldwide popularity has led to a surprising number of non-Hollywood creations, including the so-called "spaghetti Westerns" of Sergio Leone, the surreal cult classic El Topo from Mexico, and the Australian Man From Snowy River, which features lots of the usual wide-open spaces, cowboys and horses, and even an American star - Kirk Douglas, in a double role.

A dozen "Indianerfilme" ("Indian movies") were made by the East German state movie production company DEFA between 1966 and 1983. These films represent a yet little-known but fascinating chapter in the history of the Western. Filmed mainly in the former Yugoslavia, but also in other locations ranging from Cuba to Mongolia, these Communist horse operas all starred Gojko Mitic, a Yugoslavian native, in a series of heroic Native American roles.

The East Germans were trying to offer a Hollywood-style alternative to the regular social realist fare, and match the success of the films made in West Germany based on the enormously popular novels of Karl May, a kind of German James Fenimore Cooper. In fact, the obsession in Germany (East and West) with Native American life produced a number of still existing Native American clubs. In these Indianerclubs, members dress up in Indian costumes, live in teepees and play out escapist fantasies as weekend mystic warriors.

The Indianerfilme blend historical research with a romantic image of Native Americans as "noble savages." A Marxist perspective is evident as well, with the Native Americans viewed as communitarians, if not exactly communists, victims of political and economic imperialism. The socio-political undertones give the films a post-Cold War curiosity value, but it was the action and adventure that made Indianerfilme widely successful, a staple of Eastern Bloc cinema.

In Apachen (1973), directed by Gottfried Kolditz, Mitic is Ulzana (the subject of the Hollywood film Ulzana's Raid, which starred Burt Lancaster). Set at the time of the Mexican-American war, the film begins with the massacre of unarmed Indians, including Ulzana's wife, in Pinos Altos. The Americans have designs upon the Santa Rita mine, and want the Apaches out of the way. The rest of the film follows the adventures of Ulzana as he exacts his revenge. The film has camp novelty - hearing the Apaches speak German is at first disconcerting, but also succeeds as an action-packed Western. Fairly conventional and at times awkward, Apachen is beautifully shot, especially when the characters are moving through the wide-screen landscape. The Americans, and in particular their leader, Ulzana's rival, are appropriately amoral and greedy. Their one-time Mexican allies, with a few exceptions - i.e. the "Good Mexicans" - are self-interested weaklings. The Native Americans (played by Yugoslavs) are the heroes here. Apachen offers an unusual window onto the now-vanished East German society, as well as a notable reminder of the international appeal of the Western.