This is Exodus from the Cold War era.
East Germany in the 1970s was so sunny. Our protagonist Peter, an electrician living in a small town in the south of East Germany, has a beautiful wife, two lovely sons, a house with a garage, and of course a car, and friendly neighbors ("Where do you want to travel, you talk, As long as I call my comrades at the tourist office..."). The eldest son just attended the graduation ceremony of middle school, and he began to flirt with the girl next door frequently. The youngest son is lively and lovely, just the age when he loves to stick to his parents. Living a life like this with a house and a car, no 996 mortgage, and no more bicycles.
It's so boring, just when I want to change the channel, such a happy life, like a castle in a bubble, is repeatedly punctured by the truth. The following contains serious spoilers, children's shoes that have not been seen, give up treatment.
The truth comes from the sound of gunfire on the heavily guarded East-West German border, from the unfair treatment of your friend Gant, from the omnipresent vigilant eyes, from the unknown day when you will be drafted into the army by your country and shoot at your countrymen. Even these prosperous days are as suffocating as living in a cage compared to the humanistic Western European countries. Peter's happy life was pinned on an unreliable balloon in the face of the sudden north wind.
Stepping into the gondola of the balloon is like stepping into the threshold described by Turgenev. It requires a never-ending decision and courage to move forward. The stake is not only on yourself, but also on the lives of your children. It was an unimaginable courage that led Peter and his friend Gantt to start such a gamble with their children.
The journey of escape was tortuous. For the first time, Gantt retreated. The Peter family took off in a balloon, but fell back to the ground because the balloon became heavy. .
Frightened, everyone decided to return to their original lives and dared not try again, but soon, a terrible discovery made them have no way out: Gantt's wife Doris left the commonly used thyroid drugs and prescriptions in the balloon. . It was only a matter of time before the Stasi found them. The rhythm of the story suddenly accelerated, and in desperation, the Peters decided to go to Berlin to find an opportunity to seek help from the American embassy. In deserted Berlin, everyone is like the eyeliner of the Stasi. The guards near the embassy are densely packed with enemies. The brave eldest son managed to send a message, but the whole family can't imagine what kind of response. Of course, there was no response, save for the director's little trick to challenge your nerves (Peter's dream in the hotel really freaked me out). No way, then go buy some cloth and prepare for the next balloon, but I was almost caught alive in the cloth shop. The vigilance of the people in Berlin is really not overshadowed, no less than the people in Chaoyang.
Hurry up and run. When I returned to my hometown, I found that the house leaked and it rained overnight. My friend Gant was drafted into the army. Now I don't know how to buy enough fabrics, I don't know if I have enough time to sew balloons, I don't know when there is a north wind, and Sri Lanka Tassi's arrest net became tighter and tighter, from the fabric store to the license plate, from the kindergarten to the pharmacy, and someday the secret police would come to the door. The rest of the episode is the climax of the whole play, and the rhythm is very tense. It was really hope that there was hope in desperation, and salvation was achieved in desperation. Moses crossed the Red Sea, and good people were finally at peace.
Ten years later, when the Berlin Wall finally fell, the border between Germany and Germany was free and open. The young man who fled in a hurry in a balloon can finally fly freely under the same sky in a plane.
Why is Peter leaving? It is for the children to grow up happily. Why did the young Gantt leave? He was dissatisfied with the fact that he liked physics, but could only drive an ambulance. The reason was that his father went to West Germany when he was 5 years old. Gantt's wife Petra (a bit like Nicole Kidman) wants to be reunited with her mother in West Germany. Flesh and blood get together, children grow up, and they develop themselves. This is a reasonable life goal anywhere. Here, it is only possible to step into the small hanging basket of a balloon.
Of course, in the harsh environment of the Stasi and Chaoyang crowds, there are also flashes of human brilliance, such as the vague guidance of Gant's stepfather (your wish does not have to be the same as mine, you still have a good life), facing the secret The police's inquiries resisted the pressure and didn't report their kindergarten teacher (a big thumbs up?), was stunned by Peter's eldest son's crazy proposal (Would you like to go to West Germany with me) but didn't expose his daughter of the secret police, often Thinking of them, I think the German people really have hope.
The acting style of the actors in the whole film is simple and natural, and their expressiveness is really impressive. All the supporting roles are online, and there is no shortcoming at all. As a comedy-turned-director, he uses a very wonderful film language in this serious and tense film. Several tight parallel clips create a very gripping effect. There is a scene where the Stasi's net is constantly tightening, the agents are knocking on the door to investigate according to the clues, and the Peter and his wife are embracing and waiting silently. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, Peter walked over to open the door, and the two agents outside the door in the next shot took out their credentials. Just when your heart was tightened, the camera turned and it was another resident who opened the door. The eldest son stood outside the door that Peter opened (ahem, I forgot my key). When he finally escaped and was searched by the army, the East German military and police were dispatched in large numbers at night. As soon as the camera turned, they were stopped by a police car, and they raised their hands in trembling, but the police were puzzled and asked what were you doing? It turned out that they had crossed the border, and it was the West German police who asked them. In East Germany everyone looked like the secret police, in West Germany they dared to hug the police happily. The tone of the whole film is cold and depressing, which restores the atmosphere of the 1970s very well, but it was a big colorful balloon that lifted off in the end, as if to use all the colors that were not willing to be used here. .
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