-PRE-ORDER NOTICE: This title is scheduled for release on: October 19th 2026
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Description
Eureka Entertainment presents Beneath the Trees: Folktales at DEFA II, a limited-edition three-disc Blu-ray box set featuring five enchanting and fantastical adaptations of classic folktales from the legendary East German film studio DEFA.
Available together on Blu-ray in the UK for the first time, the collection will be released on October 19, 2026, as part of The Masters of Cinema Series.
Strictly limited to 2,000 copies, this deluxe edition is housed in a hardbound slipcase and includes an exclusive 60-page collector’s book.
Known as Märchenfilme, DEFA’s adaptations of folktales and fairy tales by writers such as Wilhelm Hauff, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm possess an uncanny, dreamlike, and often phantasmagorical quality. These films remain among the productions most closely associated with East German cinema and its state-operated studio.
This collection brings together five of DEFA’s greatest and strangest folktale films:
The Tinderbox
A young soldier agrees to help a scheming witch retrieve a magical tinderbox guarded by a monstrous dog.
Snow White
An evil queen orders a hunter to murder her stepdaughter after a magic mirror declares Snow White the most beautiful woman in the land.
Snow White and Rose Red
Two young sisters encounter a pair of princes who have been transformed into animals by an evil mountain spirit.
The Frog King
A princess must endure a series of trials to reach the Frog King’s castle, where she hopes to reunite with the handsome prince she once mistreated.
The Robe
Two weavers arrive in a town surrounded by an impenetrable wall and are ordered to create garments worthy of its tyrannical ruler in this adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes.
The set includes some of DEFA’s best-known Märchenfilme, including The Tinderbox, which was broadcast in an English-dubbed version by the BBC as part of the Tales from Europe series.
It also includes true rarities such as The Frog King and The Robe. Production on The Robe began in 1961, but the film was not completed and released until after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Limited Edition Contents
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Limited to 2,000 copies
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Three-disc Blu-ray box set
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Hardbound slipcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F
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Reversible inner sleeves with new artwork for each film by Carly A-F
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60-page collector’s book featuring:
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A new essay on the production design of DEFA’s folktale films by Märchenfilme expert Corinna Alexandra Rader
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New notes on each film by DEFA historians Sebastian Heiduschke and Qinna Shen
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The original Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm stories that inspired the films
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Disc Features
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1080p HD presentations of all five films from restorations by the DEFA Foundation
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Original German soundtracks
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Optional English soundtrack for The Tinderbox
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Newly translated optional English subtitles
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Interactive menus
Special Features
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New audio commentary on The Tinderbox by socialist cinema expert Ally Pitts, host of A Russian and Soviet Movie Podcast
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New audio commentary on The Robe by film historian Michael Brooke
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Two Kingdoms — New interview with German cinema expert Rachel Palfreyman on the history of folktales in German culture and their adaptations in East and West Germany
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Mirror, Mirror — New video essay by film and animation scholar Sam Summers examining DEFA’s adaptations of Snow White and Snow White and Rose Red
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The Emperor’s New Clothes (1956) — Short stop-motion animation directed by Herbert K. Schulz and adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen tale
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The Fisherman and His Wife (1975) — Short stop-motion animation directed by Werner Krauße and adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale
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Beauty and the Beast (1976) — Short stop-motion animation directed by Katja Georgi and adapted from the tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
Technical Specifications
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Region Code: B
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Total Runtime: 373 minutes
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Original Language: German
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Subtitles: English
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Aspect Ratios: 1.37:1 and 2.35:1
All special features are subject to change.
