Known for Germany’s all-time biggest grossing movies Manitou’s Shoe (2001) and Dreamship Surprise (2004), comedy personality Michael “Bully” Herbig now makes his directing foray into thrillers. In Balloon he recreates a gripping historical event with the spectacular true story of two families’ extraordinary escape from East to West Germany.
1979, East Germany at the height of the Cold War. Günter Wetzel (David Kross, The Reader), a bricklayer, and his friend Peter Strelzyk (Friedrich Mücke), an electrician, can no longer bear the oppressive regime. Gathering all their courage, the two men and their wives resolve to undertake an impossible mission to secretly build a hot air balloon from scratch that will carry them and their families over the heavily fortified border fence to freedom. Over the course of the next 18 months they sew 1,000 square metres of cloth and gather countless weather reports from West German radio with the Stasi (State Police) hot on their heels. A nerve- racking battle against the clock begins…
Tuesday 21st May
125 min
M
Film Festival
