Balloon

East Germany 1978. The Strelzyk and Wetzel families have never experienced West German freedom, but yearn for it as they struggle to thrive under the stifling limitations, and infamous watch, of the German Democratic Republic. When their ability to feign total allegiance to communism collapses, best friends - engineer Peter Strelzyk and amateur physicist Gunter Wetzel - begin formulating near-suicidal plans to lift their wives and four young sons out of the heavily fortified Eastern bloc by hot air balloon. When an initial attempt to escape misfires, it's only a matter of time before they're identified and the two families must rapidly reconstruct a plan to save them from certain death. Released November of 2019 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of German reunification, BALLOON brings to life the uplifting and remarkable true story of one of the German Cold War's most renowned, and near-mythical, escape stories.