Directed by Michael Herbig. Reviewed by Paul Sorrell

Based on a true story, Balloon is a tight, fast-paced film about the escape of two families, the Strezlks and the Wetzels, from East Germany by hot-air balloon in 1979. While it works well as a thriller, with attention to period detail and the relationships and tensions between the characters, the broader political background is lacking, as well as a deeper exploration of the characters’ motivations.

In the central part of the film, for example, the Strezlk family travel to East Berlin in an attempt to contact the US Embassy there and seek asylum as a “persecuted family”. But the film offers us no evidence for this claim other than their being citizens of a totalitarian regime, like all their compatriots. In fact, they are stylishly dressed, have a nice car and seem to enjoy many of the trappings of a 1970s middle-class lifestyle. Why escape is such a pressing task for these two rather ordinary families remains unanswered.

Elsewhere, it feels as if director Herbig (a popular German comedian in his day job) is trying to pack too much into the film. While the Stasi, the East German secret police, figure prominently in the story as the authorities close in, the Strezlks’ neighbour, a Stasi official, is a comic figure whose daughter is romancing their teenage son. When Peter Strezlk, an electrician, modifies the apparatchik’s TV set so that he can watch Western shows like Charlie’s Angels, there is no suggestion that this might be a trap.

However, these possible miscalculations point to the film’s major strength — dramatic tension, which Herbig ratchets up as the fugitive families struggle to perfect their second attempt at escape. So much could go wrong, especially as their first, failed, flight in a home-made balloon had alerted the authorities and they are being doggedly pursued by the indefatigable, yet oddly humane, Lt Col Seidel. An attempt to buy a long run of material for the second balloon proves an almost fatal mistake, and the potential for the families’ two youngest children — not to mention Frank’s flirtation with his young neighbour — to derail the escape plan produces some nail-biting moments.

If you are up for a well-made, edge-of-your-seat thriller, set against the backdrop of a European communist regime beginning to unravel, then Balloon is certainly a movie worth seeing. 

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 244 December 2019: 29