Ostern

The Ostern (Eastern; Russian: И́стерн, Istern; or остерн) is a film genre created in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc as a variation of the Western films. The word "Ostern" is a portmanteau derived from the German word Ost, meaning "East", and the English word "western". The term now includes two related genres:

• Red Westerns, set in America's "Wild West" but involving radically different themes and interpretations than US Westerns. These Soviet Westerns were mostly produced in the Eastern Bloc, especially in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Examples of Red Westerns include Lemonade Joe or the Horse Opera (Czechoslovakia, 1964), The Sons of Great Bear (East Germany, 1966), The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians (Romania, 1981), and A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines (USSR, 1987).
• Easterns (Osterns) were set domestically on the steppes and Central Asian regions of the USSR, typically during the Russian Revolution or the following Civil War. Easterns were presented in a style heavily influenced by American Western films. Examples of this genre include The Elusive Avengers (1966) and its sequels, White Sun of the Desert (1970), Dauria (1971), At Home among Strangers (1974) and The Bodyguard (1979).