Synopsis
Two families attempt a daredevil plan to escape the GDR with a homemade hot air balloon, but it crashes just before the border. The Stasi finds traces of this attempt to escape and immediately starts investigations, while the two families are forced to build a new escape balloon. With each passing day the Stasi is closer on their heels – a nerve-wracking race against time begins.
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Cast
- Karoline SchuchDoris Strelzyk
- Friedrich MückePeter Strelzyk
- Alicia von RittbergPetra Wetzel
- David KrossGünter Wetzel
- Jonas HoldenriederFrank Strelzyk
- Tilman DöblerAndreas 'Fitscher' Strelzyk
- Thomas KretschmannOberstleutnant Seidel
- Ronald KukuliesErik Baumann
- Emily KuscheKlara Baumann
- Ulrich BrandhoffOberstleutnant Tornow
Recommendations
- 80
Los Angeles Times
Filmmaker Herbig and his team prove to be especially adept at contriving situations where anything anyone does causes fear, anxiety, stress and worry, leaving everyone, very much including the audience, existing on the knife’s edge of unremitting tension. - 70
Film Threat
The movie is a heart-on-the-sleeve, old-fashioned action-adventure thriller. This Balloon may not exactly soar, but it’ll give you a satisfyingly stirring ride. - 67
Austin Chronicle
In this entertainingly tense thriller, Hebrig finds extraordinary courage and understandable fear in both the Strelzyk and Wetzels. - 56
TheWrap
It feels like an attempt to transpose the mix of thrills and prestige of a film like “Argo” onto a different true story, a paint-by-numbers approach that’s far less compelling than drawing outside the lines would have been. - 50
The New York Times
There is nothing objectionable about Michael Bully Herbig’s glossy political thriller, Balloon, but there’s nothing particularly exciting about it, either. - 50
Variety
Balloon is decent entertainment to a degree, and that is mostly thanks to its handsome production values. - 50
Boston Globe
Balloon manages to combine slickness and sentimentality, predictability and implausibility. The fact that it’s based on a true story — the closing credits include photographs of the actual families — does not make up for the amassing of red herrings, close calls, and occasions for head-scratching. - 40
The Guardian
How Herbig fails to capitalise on the sheer physical terror of their flight – the balloon’s basket is more a flimsily strung boxing ring – makes you wish someone like Werner Herzog had mounted this mad escapade for real.
