Norsk filminstitutt

A young technocrat, Mikls Nemeth, becomes Hungary's new prime minister to save the country's appalling economy in this creative documentary and high-politics drama about the collapse of the Iron Curtain. He then decides to remove the expensive border control apparatus from the state budget. A young couple from East Germany is encouraged by the rumours that the Hungarian border to Austria will be opened and decide to go for it. But Nemeth's decision has set him up against formidable adversaries and communist hardliners. The young couple are caught up in the political power-game, and the young man is shot dead at the border. This tragic event paradoxically accelerates Nemeth's final decision to open the borders, and soon after the Berlin wall falls. A feature documentary by Anders Ostergaard (previously Tintin and Me, and Burma VJ). Anders Ostergaard recreates the events of 1989 and invites the audience into the secret meeting rooms through a mixture of 'testimonials', archive material, recreation, and reconstructed dialogues lip-synch'ed to archive footage of the real political key characters.

Production and distribution

Production Year:
2014
Production country:
Denmark
Release date (national):
2014-11-06
Production company:
Magic Hour Films
Co production company:
Substans Film AS
Producer:
Lise Lense-Møller
Co producer:
Kristian Mosvold
Sales agent:
First Hand Films

Director

  • Anders Østergård

    Director, born 1965. Graduated from the Danish School of Journalism in 1991 after training at Central Television, London. Worked as a copywriter at an advertising agency and as a researcher on documentary programmes. Awarded Best Documentary at Odense International Film Festival in 1999 for "Troldkarlen"/"The Magus". Writer-director on the international coproduction "Tintin et moi" (2003), and the documentary about one of Denmark's most popular rock bands "Gasolin" (2006) which had a successful run at the domestic boxoffice with nearly a quarter million admissions. "Burma VJ" (2008) received an Oscar nomination and has taken home a record-breaking number of international awards, including IDFA's Joris Ivens and Movies That Matter. Also from 2008 is "Så kort og mærkeligt livet er", about Danish poet Dan Turèll.

    Anders Østergård

Crew

Director:
Anders Østergård
Co director:
Erzsébet Rácz
Screenplay:
Anders Østergård
Erzsébet Rácz
Cinematographer:
Simon Plum
Editor:
Réka Lemhényi
Pernille Bech Christensen
Szilvia Ruszev
Composer:
Stein Berge Svendsen

Technical information

Format:
DCP 2k
Colour:
Black and White
Length in min's:
97'

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