John Smith, the avant garde film maker, has kindly offered Culture Matters his short film, Dark Light. Below, he introduces it.

The only time I’ve visited a communist country was when I went to Poland in 1980, not long after Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government was first elected in Britain. I first visited the former East Germany in 1997, eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and a few months after Tony Blair's 'New Labour' government was elected. Recalling these experiences many years later, Dark Light questions our imaginings of life in other places, times and political systems, mirroring its narrative through its form. London and Warsaw, 1980. London and Leipzig, 1997.

Where now?

More information on John Smith's films is available at www.johnsmithfilms.com