Balloon (2018)
(Ballon)
Country: GER/FR/US
Technical: col/2.39:1 125m
Director: Michael Herbig
Cast: Friedrich Mücke, Karoline Schuch, David Kross, Thomas Kretschmann
Synopsis:
Two East-German families design and construct a hot-air balloon in which to escape to the West. The first attempt fails and, while they race to make a bigger one, the Stasi police tighten the search ever closer to their area.
Review:
If it were not based on a true story you would not believe it; it is thus a shame that the makers feel it necessary to contrive quite so many blind alleys and near misses in their family's bid for freedom. More time could have been spent on the reasons for their 'at all costs' defection, and on the mechanics of their getaway, but it would doubtless have made a less pacy film, at least one less marketable on the international stage. Recreation of the period is faultless, down to the cigarette packets, but colour grading might have been more muted: with their blue Wartburg and the balloon itself being apparently the only objects of colour in the GDR, it is amazing they were not spotted sooner.
(Ballon)
Country: GER/FR/US
Technical: col/2.39:1 125m
Director: Michael Herbig
Cast: Friedrich Mücke, Karoline Schuch, David Kross, Thomas Kretschmann
Synopsis:
Two East-German families design and construct a hot-air balloon in which to escape to the West. The first attempt fails and, while they race to make a bigger one, the Stasi police tighten the search ever closer to their area.
Review:
If it were not based on a true story you would not believe it; it is thus a shame that the makers feel it necessary to contrive quite so many blind alleys and near misses in their family's bid for freedom. More time could have been spent on the reasons for their 'at all costs' defection, and on the mechanics of their getaway, but it would doubtless have made a less pacy film, at least one less marketable on the international stage. Recreation of the period is faultless, down to the cigarette packets, but colour grading might have been more muted: with their blue Wartburg and the balloon itself being apparently the only objects of colour in the GDR, it is amazing they were not spotted sooner.
(Ballon)
Country: GER/FR/US
Technical: col/2.39:1 125m
Director: Michael Herbig
Cast: Friedrich Mücke, Karoline Schuch, David Kross, Thomas Kretschmann
Synopsis:
Two East-German families design and construct a hot-air balloon in which to escape to the West. The first attempt fails and, while they race to make a bigger one, the Stasi police tighten the search ever closer to their area.
Review:
If it were not based on a true story you would not believe it; it is thus a shame that the makers feel it necessary to contrive quite so many blind alleys and near misses in their family's bid for freedom. More time could have been spent on the reasons for their 'at all costs' defection, and on the mechanics of their getaway, but it would doubtless have made a less pacy film, at least one less marketable on the international stage. Recreation of the period is faultless, down to the cigarette packets, but colour grading might have been more muted: with their blue Wartburg and the balloon itself being apparently the only objects of colour in the GDR, it is amazing they were not spotted sooner.