Go West - freedom at all costs
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Go West - freedom at all costs |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2010 |
| length | about 185 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Andreas Linke |
| script | Matthias lease |
| production |
Birgit Brandes , Daniel Mann , Christian Rohde , Jürgen Schuster |
| music | Chris Bremus |
| camera | Stefan Unterberger |
| cut | Jens Klüber |
| occupation | |
| |
Go West - Freedom at Any Price is a two-part German historical drama directed by Andreas Linke from 2010 , which was realized by the production company teamWorx . The focus is on Frank Korbach, who fled the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany with his friends Thomas Peitz and Alex Baumgarten in 1984 and was persecuted by the Stasi .
The film premiered on June 26, 2010 at the Großes Fernsehen festival ; it was first broadcast on January 6 and 7, 2011 on ProSieben .
action
Part 1
In the early summer of 1984, friends Thomas and Alex from Brandenburg an der Havel plan to realize their dream of fleeing the GDR to West Germany. Thomas is considered a deserter in the German Democratic Republic because he did not appear for military service. When 18-year-old Frank, who actually doesn't want to flee to become an actor in East Berlin , drives his friends Thomas and Alex to the border near Oschersleben , a state security unit turns up there to prevent them from escaping from the GDR . However, the friends manage to escape in time. As an escaped helper, Frank now has no choice but to flee with them.
From then on, the young men were persecuted by the Stasi. Frank's father, Major Kurt Korbach, and Lieutenant Frey are responsible.
On the advice of Frank's mother, the young people drive to Gera to see Max Steiner, an experienced escape helper who used to be friends with Kurt Korbach. Korbach did not know that his wife knew Steiner's address. There they also meet Max's daughter Maria. Max draws up the plan to reach the Federal Republic of Germany via the German embassy in Belgrade. Shortly before the Czechoslovak border, the group separates in order to get through the woods undetected and meet in Prague . Alex is caught by the Czechoslovak border guards and interrogated by Korbach and Frey after being handed over to the Stasi. Korbach can persuade Alex to act as an informant for the Stasi in order to be able to arrest Steiner and his helpers.
Alex arrives at the agreed meeting point in Prague in time to be able to continue with the others by train to Hungary. Frey and Kurt Korbach track down the group at the train station and stop them.
Part 2
A gun battle breaks out on the platform in which Thomas is injured and Steiner is shot. The boys and Maria receive help first from a priest, then from a Russian escape helper whom they met through Steiner. Maria is caught by the Stasi, but can be freed by the Russian escape helper. With new passports and cash they can take the train to Budapest . A phone call from Alex tells the Stasi her whereabouts again.
Thomas' gunshot wound begins to weaken him, which is why they cannot flee any further at first. You are staying in a luxury hotel. Frank and Maria get closer. The next day, when Thomas is better, they catch the train to Belgrade in Yugoslavia . Kurt Korbach and Frey know the destination and also get on the train. In a showdown, Alex stands in the way of his friends of the Stasi in order to stop them. Thomas, Frank and Maria flee across a border river to Yugoslavia, where Kurt Korbach prevents Frey from shooting at his son. Alex and Kurt Korbach are arrested, Korbach flees.
The friends reach the embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Belgrade and receive West German passports. At the Belgrade airport, however, they are picked up by Frey and his people, but immediately afterwards freed by Kurt Korbach. Now they are flying to Munich unmolested .
Five years later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall , Frank and Thomas and Maria visit his parents and Alex, who had stayed in the GDR.
background
production
The two-part series was produced by teamWorx, which has already designed films such as Die Flucht and Dresden . Christian Rohde and Jürgen Schuster acted as producers, who realized the film called a TV event in collaboration with Marco Gilles and Daniel Mann from gilles mann filmproduktion on behalf of ProSieben and SevenOne International. Go West was funded with funds from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and FilmFernsehFond Bayern. The shooting took place between spring and summer 2009 mostly in cities of the former GDR like Chemnitz or Dresden as well as in Brandenburg and Bavaria . Some acts in the film were shot in Prague .
publication
The film, described by ProSieben as a historical drama, premiered on June 26, 2010 as part of the Großes Fernsehen festival at Medienforum.NRW in the presence of the main actors and some crew members. Before Go West - Freedom at all costs was shown on television, it was shown to the public for the second time on December 6th in the Babylon cinema in Berlin . The film was broadcast on ProSieben on January 6th and 7th, 2011 as a German first broadcast in prime time . The total audience was 2.18 million viewers with a market share of 6.4%.
Shortly after it was broadcast on television, the film was released on DVD by the Kinowelt media group with a ten-minute making-of .
criticism
“[...] There have been many escape dramas, but none yet that was so precisely tailored to the young target group. Director Andreas Linke stages living conditions at high speed, with modern imagery and uses surprising twists and turns. [...] detailed equipment forms the background for the action drama, Ostalgie has no place in it. [...] "
"[...] the title sounded like a GDR escape two-parter with a sweet love story according to Sat.1 gusto and that alone should have deterred many typical ProSieben viewers, even if it was made with a lot of action on the ProSieben Audience was tailored. [...] "
"Coherent escape drama from the Cold War era, and the pace is picking up again."
“[...] A material like this on a station like ProSieben is something unusual. After all, the action takes place at a time when many of the most fiercely competitive viewers in the young audience segment were not even born, which private broadcasters in particular like to use as an excuse to refrain from historical material. Of course, the material has been subjected to certain audience-specific adjustments in terms of speed and presentation. [...] The film [seems] honest in a refreshingly good way. The only downer: The somewhat cheesy ending in the Belgrade embassy [...]. "
Awards
- Nomination for the German Television Award 2011 in the category Best Multi-Part
See also
Web links
- Go West - freedom at any cost in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website of the production company teamWorx
- Official website of ProSieben
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Go West - freedom at any price . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2010 (PDF; 1st film).
- ↑ Release certificate for Go West - freedom at any price . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, December 2010 (PDF; 2nd film).
- ↑ Start of shooting for “Go West - Freedom at Any Price” (AT). (No longer available online.) TeamWorx, May 29, 2009, archived from the original on October 11, 2011 ; Retrieved January 6, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Premiere of "GO WEST - Freedom at Any Price" as part of the Large TV Festival at medienforum.nrw. (No longer available online.) TeamWorkx, June 14, 2010, formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 6, 2011 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Coming soon: Premiere of the TV series in Berlin. (No longer available online.) TeamWorx, November 24, 2010, formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 6, 2011 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Uwe Mantel: ProSieben two-part "Go West" starts poorly. DWDL.de , January 7, 2011, accessed on January 7, 2011 .
- ^ Go West - Freedom at any Price - Criticism. Kino.de, accessed on January 6, 2011 .
- ^ Go West - Freedom at all costs (2). TV Spielfilm.de , accessed on April 16, 2011 .
- ^ Christian Junklewitz: Festival Großes Fernsehen: With "Leverage" into the "Zone of Separation". Serienjunkies.de, June 27, 2010, accessed April 23, 2011 .
