In 1997, film archivist Dana Ranga compiled footage from Cold War-era Communist Bloc movie musicals for the lively, eye-opening documentary East Side Story. Of all the state-sponsored production companies surveyed in the film, the East German studio DEFA generated the funniest and most poignant anecdotes. Throughout the '60s, DEFA's staff tried to express the potential joys of collectivism and the new freedoms in store in the early days of the Brezhnev regime, while sneaking in subtle criticisms of their government's more totalitarian aspects—all under the guise of the sort of frothy, Americanized escapism that the public wanted to see. One highlight of East Side Story was the hysterical series of excerpts from the DEFA beach-party clone Hot Summer, but now that the complete film has been made available on home video, its teen-centered antics look less loony. The plainly choreographed but energetic dance numbers and soggily orchestrated but catchy rock songs have a "best we can do" charm, and the plot's romantic entanglements evoke a genuine adolescent ache, while illustrating the pitfalls of putting individual desires above the needs of the many. East German pop stars Chris Doerk and Frank Schöbel are two of a mixed set of 21 boys and girls who pull pranks on each other while vacationing at a farm on the Baltic Sea. Regine Albrecht plays a free-thinker who bounces gaily between a couple of gentleman callers, infuriating the studly Schöbel and earning the scorn of Doerk, who plays the women's-camp ringleader. Amid the jazzily percussive, symphonic, almost Brian Wilson-like musical numbers, writer-director Joachim Hasler offers pretty scenery, a generous helping of attractive bare skin, and an honest relating of the younger generation's desire for such ideologically forbidden luxury items as blue jeans and nail polish. The film's state-approved message comes in subtle form early on, as its first 20 minutes or so play out without any formal, individualized introduction of the characters; the message gets more heavy-handed when Albrecht's self-centered fickleness causes the entire youth group to suffer. But even this last bit of all-for-one propaganda wouldn't be out of place in a contemporary American summer-camp movie. In its way, Hot Summer is more relevant to modern times than the frivolous, lovesick Hollywood sand-and-surf comedies of the same era, because the concerns of the East German youngsters endure. They want to be good people, they want to be patriotic and committed to a goal, and in between the hours of toil, they want to have fun.