1989

In the meantime, a young couple from East Germany is encouraged by the rumours that the Hungarian border to Austria will be opened for a few days to allow for the Pan-European picnic. Like thousands of other East Germans, they decide to make a go for it, but they are caught up in the political power-game that plays out behind closed doors in the Eastern Bloc. They young man is shot dead at the border, a tragic event that paradoxically accelerates Nemeth’s final decision to open the borders, and soon after the Berlin wall falls.

A feature documentary by Anders Østergaard (previously Tintin and Me, and Burma VJ). Anders Østergaard 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.

1989 is a feature-length documentary by Oscar-nominated director Anders Østergaard, who has made it his special trend to visualize the invisible and recreate the past to make it come alive before our very eyes. The film ventures deep into the high-risk political game that lead to the fall of the Wall and the reunification of Europe by visiting the secret rooms where political battles were fought and history made. The film uses a cutting edge approach to documentary recreation, which - intervowen with testimonials and archive material - forms a rich and cinematic tapestry of events. The two central ‘witnesses’ are former Hungarian prime minister, Miklós Neméth representing the macro political level, and Gundula, the surviving half of an East German couple, who were the last to fatally attempt to cross the border, representing the micro level .

The film opens in the marshlands between Hungary and Austria. The ageing iron curtain dividing East from West, is beginning to fall apart. The barbed wire is simply rusting away and the electronical warning system, once the pride of the border troops, is getting completely unreliable. Several times a day, hundreds of troops are rushed out in their trucks as the alarm bells ring, only to realize that another rabbit or wild boar has crossed the border. The electronic fence can only be fixed with spare parts from the West, bought with the hard-currency loans that are already strangling Hungary's frail economy. It is an absurd situation, and in Budapest, a newly appointed young prime minister, Miklos Nemeth, decides that enough is enough. Unexpected by all, this sends a ball rolling, that ten months later allows the people of Berlin to dance on the Brandenburg Gate. Before that, however, a desperate power game has taken place between the key government leaders of the time. Some of them pursued the hope for a peaceful Europe free from oppression and the nuclear menace, while others – rightfully - saw the collapse of everything they believed in, in fact the annihilation of the very states they ruled. For these men, it became – literally - a battle of life and death.

And so, the young prime minister soon learns that he has set himself up against formidable opponents, not just the disgruntled hardliners of his own party, but also against two seasoned dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania and Erich Honecker of the GDR. In their closed circles, they make no secret of their fury and systematically plot against the traitors of the socialist cause. What goes on in their respective conference rooms behind closed doors, and also in direct confrontation with the rebellious Hungarians, is what this film – in particular - will bring to life again.

In the summer of 1989, Miklós Neméth decides to test his opponents and allows the Hungarian/Austrian borders to be opened for some days. This leads to the Pan European Picnic - and a welcome escape for many. A young East German couple with their little son decide that this is their chance. They abandon their apartment, work, friends and family, and travel to Hungary, but in the meantime the border has been closed again. During a dramatic attempt to cross the border – which just a few days earlier had been open – the young man is shot dead. Based on this tragedy, Neméth understands that the political power games have real consequences for real people, and that he needs to act. He decides to open the borders for good.

The storyline of the film follows the two central testimonials, and the documentary platform for the reenactment of certain scenes are based on elaborate meeting protocols and detailed testimonies and witness recounts. Refining a technique introduced in the director's 2004 documentary 'Tintin And I', very accurate dialogues have been written, which actors with particular imitation skills reenact, only on the soundtrack. The visual side will be provided by existing footage of the protagonists in similar situations. By painstakingly adjusting the pace and rythm of the soundtrack to the lip movements and body language of the archive footage, we achieve long stretches of real-time narrative, which not only offers the elegance of working with the images of the real characters, but also an inspirational and highly cost-effective solution to the reenactment challenge itself, which at the same time invites the audience to reflect on History itself, and how History is related.

The film also uses footage of a more generic nature with underlying dialogues – e.g. for some of the scenes with the young couple. In this case, the technique will more be openly interpretative and poetic – a deliberate play with archive material which will benefit the storytelling and establish an even clearer contract with the audience: this is a creative documentary.

The film celebrates the upcoming 30th anniversary of the reunification of Europe.

Winner Prix Italia, CPH:DOX, Cinema for Peace (nom.), Memorimage, Tallinn Black Nights, Göteborg, Docaviv, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Planete Doc, L'Europe, Premios Ondas int. TV Award Barcelona