Behind Walls - Eastern Europe before and beyond 1989 is the catalogue of the fifteenth Noorderlicht International Photofestival, 2008. Never before has photography from all the former Eastern Bloc countries been brought together in a large-scale presentation. Almost twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall Noorderlicht reveals a forgotten wealth of impressive and historically interesting photography, providing a unique insight into life and photography under the repressive regimes behind the Iron Curtain.

A new Eastern Europe has arisen since 1989. With a critical gaze a new generation of photographers from East and West investigate the enormous social changes in the young democracies. They tell an intriguing story of a world full of contradictions, where the heroic worker has had to transform himself into a critical consumer and a dynamic present still bears the scars of an emotionally charged past.

Behind Walls is the final edition of a quintet on non-Western photography. The previous editions included Africa Inside, Mundos Creados, Nazar and Another Asia.