Balloon(2019)

Storyline

• In the summer of 1979, in Thüringen, in East Germany, two families put together a crazy plan. They are desperate to leave the DDR for the 'West' and plan to flee in a homemade hot air balloon. After sewing and tinkering for weeks, the amateurs make their first attempt. Meters from the West German border, their balloon suffers from the rain and crash lands. Luckily, they manage to avoid being caught by the police. However, the wreckage from their escape attempt is found and that triggers a desperate manhunt. The tension rises as the families determine to try again, and a race against time ensues. On the one hand, the authorities, desperate to track down the traitors, become aware that a second attempt is being planned. On the other, the would-be escapees, conscious of the search drawing ever nearer, need to build a more robust, weatherproof balloon - and avoid leaving too many clues. East Germany 1978. The Strelzyk and Wetzel families have never experienced West German freedom, but yearn for it as they struggle to thrive under the stifling limitations, and infamous watch, of the German Democratic Republic. When their ability to feign total allegiance to communism collapses, best friends - engineer Peter Strelzyk and amateur physicist Günter Wetzel - begin formulating near-suicidal plans to lift their wives and four young sons out of the heavily fortified Eastern bloc by hot air balloon. When an initial attempt to escape misfires, it's only a matter of time before they're identified and the two families must rapidly reconstruct a plan to save them from certain death. Released November of 2019 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of German reunification, BALLOON brings to life the uplifting and remarkable true story of one of the German Cold War's most renowned, and near-mythical, escape stories. — Mae Moreno Two families attempt a daredevil plan to escape the GDR with a homemade hot air balloon, but it crashes just before the border. The Stasi finds traces of this attempt to escape and immediately starts investigations, while the two families are forced to build a new escape balloon. With each passing day the Stasi is closer on their heels a nerve wracking race against time begins. — yusufpiskin