The unlikely resurrection of Babelsberg

The Babelsberg studios were the temple of German expressionist cinema, a magical place haunted by the ghosts of Fritz Lang and Marlène Dietrich. These studios were ideally situated, were front-runners in technological aspects, and had a promising future. However, the talented directors fled from the Nazi regime and, after forty years under the iron rule of communism, it seemed that the prestigious studios were irretrievably lost, and the property would be sold. The French, a nation of cinema enthusiasts who are very keen on industrial innovation, aided by the elite of German cinema, will take up the challenge and save the Babelsberg. The former studios have come alive again in the heart of a media centre devoted to new technologies of imaging and sound.