Up, Up and Away

A Brief Comment & Review of the film, “Balloon”
by John Bennison, Mountain Shadow Director

“Where were you when you first heard ...?” is a common question that holds within it a certain kind of bond; when people remember and share the news of some momentous occasion.

Those “of a certain age” will recall Ronald Reagan standing before large crowds at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, and emphatically shouting the memorable words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

But the images of crowds of ordinary Berliners demolishing that wall and reducing it to rubble with joyous fervor two years later on Nov. 9, 1989, is even more memorable.

Before then, there were sporadic, occasional stories of East Germans attempting to cross over; often with deadly results. But that entire historical Cold War epoch represented more than one particular country’s ill-fated and fractious dilemma; with a human cry that is far more universal.

It was one era’s symbolic representation of a divided nation; with all its resulting consequences that might serve as a cautionary tale when history always seems to repeat itself.

Leaders and nations who like to build walls to keep people in, or out, seem to forget that ultimately walls serve little purpose; other than an irrepressible invitation for people to figure out a way to get over, under or around them. Hmmmm ...

Film director Michael Bully Herbig tells such a tale in what is surely the most spectacular escape from East Germany in his gripping movie thriller BALLOON.

And, like the best and most credible thrillers, it is based on a true story of the ordinary lives of two ordinary families who represent, once more, what is indomitable in the human spirit.