This book offers an up-to-date approach to the question of representing history through film, exploring how films represent crucial events in twentieth-century European history. This includes the Second World War, Armenian Genocide, anti-Semitic attacks in Poland, European terrorism of the 1970s, and the end of communism.

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction: Is the Past a Foreign Country? The Burden of the Past and the Lightness of the Present: Dealing with Historic Trauma through Film Our Hitler: New Representations of Hitler in European Films A Clear Dividing Line?: Cinematic Representations of German, Italian and Irish Terrorism From Socialist Realism to Postmodernism: Polish Martial Law of 1981 in Polish and Foreign Films Good-bye Lenin! or Not: Cinematic Representations of the End of Communism Twists of Fate: Secret Agents, Communist Collaborators and Secret Files in German, Polish and Czech films Works Cited Index