I believe that movies like 'Balloon' are very necessary. 30 years since passed the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall fell down and the the communist governments in Eastern Europe collapsed. A whole generation was born after this period, grew up and is now at full maturity, a generation that did not know communism in the countries of Eastern Europe, or the cold war in Western Europe and the rest of the world. The history of repression and lack of freedom must be known, because communism may have disappeared, but totalitarianism persists in various forms.
'Balloon' directed by Michael Herbig is a docu-drama that reconstructs on the screen an episode that happened in 1979, ten years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The true story of the two families in the South of the German 'Democratic' Republic who escaped to freedom by flying a hot air balloon was widely publicized at the time, the families enjoyed a well-deserved celebrity after their success, and a movie in Hollywood told the story. Michael Herbig's film tells again the story with the benefit of a closer knowledge of the history and of the realities of everyday life in communist Germany of the period. From this point of view the film is a success, not only by presenting the dull atmosphere of the life of the majority of the population, dominated by fear and propaganda, but also by the fact that it presents the two families in a non-idealized manner, not as heroes but as people who naturally hesitate having to make a tough decision, risking imprisonment and even death to escape living under dictatorship. The real names of the characters are used, which indicates that what we see on the screen intents to be a reconstitution close to the truth of the events that happened 40 years ago.
However, cliches and simplifications cannot be avoided. The episode of the tentive to contact the US embassy in East Berlin is confusing and ends inconclusively. The characters of the Stasi agents are schematic and cartoonish. The finale being known, the action episodes cannot create enough suspense despite the efforts of the scriptwriters and of the director. Acting is correct, but it is also one-dimensional. Reading the real biographies of the families after they managed to get to West Germany, I found out that the two men were arguing before their daring action and shortly after they were released, and they never spoke each other until at the end of their lives. Confronting freedom is not easy for those who have lived their entire lives under dictatorships. Maybe there was an interesting story here, worth exploring, or maybe it's the subject of another movie.
'Balloon' directed by Michael Herbig is a docu-drama that reconstructs on the screen an episode that happened in 1979, ten years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The true story of the two families in the South of the German 'Democratic' Republic who escaped to freedom by flying a hot air balloon was widely publicized at the time, the families enjoyed a well-deserved celebrity after their success, and a movie in Hollywood told the story. Michael Herbig's film tells again the story with the benefit of a closer knowledge of the history and of the realities of everyday life in communist Germany of the period. From this point of view the film is a success, not only by presenting the dull atmosphere of the life of the majority of the population, dominated by fear and propaganda, but also by the fact that it presents the two families in a non-idealized manner, not as heroes but as people who naturally hesitate having to make a tough decision, risking imprisonment and even death to escape living under dictatorship. The real names of the characters are used, which indicates that what we see on the screen intents to be a reconstitution close to the truth of the events that happened 40 years ago.
However, cliches and simplifications cannot be avoided. The episode of the tentive to contact the US embassy in East Berlin is confusing and ends inconclusively. The characters of the Stasi agents are schematic and cartoonish. The finale being known, the action episodes cannot create enough suspense despite the efforts of the scriptwriters and of the director. Acting is correct, but it is also one-dimensional. Reading the real biographies of the families after they managed to get to West Germany, I found out that the two men were arguing before their daring action and shortly after they were released, and they never spoke each other until at the end of their lives. Confronting freedom is not easy for those who have lived their entire lives under dictatorships. Maybe there was an interesting story here, worth exploring, or maybe it's the subject of another movie.