The East German film Coming Out (1989) as melancholic reflection and hopeful projection

Abstract

This essay argues that the East German film Coming Out (1989) achieves a dual objective: to reflect a version of living conditions for gay citizens of the GDR at the time and to project the possibility of an enlightened future in which they, and other outsiders, do not face discrimination because of their difference. Coming Out, directed by Heiner Carow, was the first feature film about homosexuality in the GDR. It premiered the day the Berlin Wall fell and came after a long and complicated history of gay rights and activism in East Germany. Despite decriminalisation in 1968, the position of lesbians and gay men in the GDR was an ambivalent and contradictory one. Through narrative and cinematographic means, the film refers to gay history and to the dissonance between socialist society and individualism, while also presenting an affirmative message for positive change and development.