Expanding the cinematic Cold War or how we learned to cross boundaries and look at bigger pictures

For a long time, Cold War studies privileged a framework rooted in bipolarism. Among the side effects of this stance was a neglect of historical transformation, additional players in the international arena, and trajectories exceeding the West–East transatlantic route. This collection highlights the ‘porousness’ of the Iron Curtain,17 or Nylon Curtain, as renamed by the Hungarian scholar György Péteri:18 whereas bipolarism favours a rigid concept of this boundary, we assume – and historical evidence and the following chapters support our view – that cooperation, transfer, and movement happened throughout the Cold War. Political allegiances, educational institutions, cultural platforms, production and distribution of cultural goods, and technological needs favoured such permeability.