Eureka Entertainment announces the release of BENEATH THE TREES: FOLKTALES AT DEFA II, a Limited Edition three-disc Blu-ray box set bringing together five more 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 arrives on 19 October 2026 as part of The Masters of Cinema Series. Strictly limited to 2,000 copies, this deluxe edition is presented in a hardbound slipcase and includes an exclusive 60-page collector's book.
Possessing an eternally uncanny, weird and phantasmagorical quality, Märchenfilme – or adaptations of popular folk and fairytales by the likes of Wilhelm Hauff, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm – remain the productions that most distinctly characterise the cinema of East Germany and its state-operated film studio, DEFA. Collected here are some of the greatest – and strangest – folktale films made in the German Democratic Republic: The Tinderbox, Snow White, Snow White and Rose Red, The Frog King and The Robe.
In The Tinderbox, a young soldier agrees to help a conniving witch in her quest to retrieve a magical tinderbox protected by a guard dog of monstrous proportions. Snow White sees an evil queen task a hunter with murdering her stepdaughter when a magic mirror deems her the most beautiful woman in the land. Then, in 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 follows a princess who must endure a series of trials to reach the castle of the Frog King, where she hopes to reunite with the handsome prince she once mistreated. Finally, in The Robe, two weavers arrive in a town surrounded by an impenetrable wall and are tasked with making garments befitting of a tyrannical ruler in an adaptation of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
Collected here are some of DEFA’s best-known Märchenfilme – including The Tinderbox, which was shown in a dubbed version on the BBC as part of the Tales from Europe series – and some true rarities, including The Frog King and The Robe, which was put into production in 1961 but not completed and released until after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present these five Märchenfilme for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.
LIMITED EDITION THREE-DISC BLU-RAY BOX SET SPECIAL FEATURES*:
- Limited Edition of 2,000 copies
- Limited edition hardcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F
- Reversible inner sleeves featuring new artwork for each film by Carly A-F
- Limited edition 60-page book featuring a new essay on the production design of DEFA’s folktales by Märchenfilme expert Corinna Alexandra Rader, new notes on each film in this set by DEFA historians Sebastian Heiduschke and Qinna Shen, plus the original Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm stories that inspired The Tinderbox, Snow White, Snow White and Rose Red, The Frog King and The Robe
- 1080p HD presentations of all five films from restorations by the DEFA Foundation
- Original German soundtracks
- Optional English soundtrack for The Tinderbox
- Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release
- New audio commentary on The Tinderbox by socialist cinema expert Ally Pitts, host of A Russian and Soviet Movie Podcast
- New audio commentary on The Robe by film historian Michael Brooke
- Two Kingdoms – new interview with German cinema expert Rachel Palfreyman on the history of folktales in German culture and their adaptations in West and East Germany
- Mirror, Mirror – new video essay on DEFA’s adaptations of Snow White and Snow White and Rose Red by film and animation scholar Sam Summers
- The Emperor’s New Clothes (Herbert K. Schulz, 1956) – short stop-motion animation adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen tale by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
- The Fisherman and his Wife (Werner Krauße, 1975) – short stop-motion animation adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
- Beauty and the Beast (Katja Georgi, 1976) – short stop-motion animation adapted from the Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve tale by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
* All extras subject to change
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