mal-prostar

Funeral in Berlin is to my mind the best spy-agent film of its kind! The film is even more appreciated if you have visited or lived in Berlin prior to 1989. I lived in West Berlin through most of 1967 and often went through Checkpoint Charlie to visit various parts of East Berlin. There was a tremendous atmosphere in West Berlin, a special buzz, an excitement, probably due to the Allied sectors being well inside the Soviet zone.

Crossing the white line at Charlie for the first time was rather daunting. Border guards would train their binoculars on you and the reception received from the Vopos who were in charge of passport admin was cold.

Watching Funeral in Berlin takes me back to 1967, I notice Kranzlers café on the Ku'damm where I often took coffee, the Bristol Kempinski Hotel off the Ku'damm where I lived for 3 months, the Europa Centre next to the Kaiser Willhelm Memorial Church, and of course the Mercedes insignia.

If you want to know more about the Berlin Wall read the excellent Christopher Hilton book The Wall: THe Peoples Story.

The movie Night Crossing captures the feelings experienced by the vast majority of East Germans during the period 1961-89. I lived in West Berlin during most of 1967 and travelled through The Wall into East Berlin on a weekly basis. Why? Excitement, crossing a border into a Soviet governed country, experiencing the smells and the feel of East Germany, which is why Night Crossing is excellent, it captures that very feeling, and it is exciting. I was arrested by the Vopos in Checkpoint Charlie and accosted by a man in his leather coat and dark glasses I am led to believe was Stasi. When I watch the movie I can smell cheap diesel and cooking oil, I can see the outdated vehicles, the drab clothing the public wore and the lacklustre produce in shop windows. It brings back memories of realising just how lucky I was to live in a free country. In 1988, I toured the DDR from East to West, North to South. East Germany had changed little since 1967. The Trabants, constantly breaking down, were still the main mode of private motorised transport, the shops still featured nothing much to tempt me, uniforms were still commonplace, but the people, the ordinary people were open and nice once you had gained their trust. Watch Night Crossing, it's as close to the truth as any movie you will see on divided Germany, even closer than two other favourites The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Funeral In Berlin.