Filme der Kindheit – Kindheit im Film. Beispiele aus Skandinavien, Mittel-und Osteuropa [Childhood films – childhood in film. Examples from Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe] (review)

Christine Gölz / Karin Hoff / Anja Tippner (Eds), Filme der Kindheit – Kindheit im Film. Beispiele aus Skandinavien, Mittel-und Osteuropa [Childhood films – childhood in film. Examples from Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe] (Series: Kinder- und Jugendkultur, -literatur und -medien; 66). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 2010 243pp ISBN 9783631575321 44,80

This international volume analyzes concepts of childhood in children’s books and films from Central and Eastern Europe as well as from Scandinavia. There is general consensus that the two media mutually influence each other and that film images in particular contribute to shaping collective notions of “childhood.” This understanding of childhood as a cultural construct situates the contributions within the scholarly context of intermediary and cultural studies.

The volume is divided into three sections. While the first section, “Children’s film – institutions and formats,” traces the development of the European children’s film industry and its various formats (e.g. serials), the two other sections, “Constructions of childhood in film” and “Children’s film and ideology,” focus on intermediary interactions and analyze the literary and filmic portrayals of childhood with respect to “reality” and “ideals” as well as to ideology. While Central and Eastern European fairytale-based movies and television series (e.g., Pan Tau [Mr. Tau]; Bolek & Lolek [Jym & Jam, Bennie & Lennie]) often develop ambiguous childhood constructs that oscillate between criticism of the political system and propaganda, the Swedish movie adaptations of Lindgren’s books for children are free of such ambivalences. On the contrary, they picture childhood as “idyllic,” a quality that was consequently attributed to the filmic setting as a whole, i.e. Sweden.

The collected contributions demonstrate that the concept of “childhood” can be interpreted very differently and that it is often socially and culturally exploited. It becomes apparent that the literary and filmic portrayals of childhood almost always have a (hidden) agenda. Many aesthetic concepts of childhood show a subversive, utopian, or nostalgic potential deeply embedded in the real world.