Trailer
Year
2014
Length
90 min
Director
Anders Østergaard
1989 – A Statesman Opens Up
No one was more surprised than 40-year-old academic economist Miklós Németh when he was named the Prime Minister of Hungary. The year was 1989 and communism was on the brink of collapse and Németh, an outsider with few friends in the Party, was suddenly responsible for the seemingly impossible task of saving the country from bankruptcy.
1989 – A Statesman Opens Up is a creative documentary and a high-politics drama about the collapse of the Iron Curtain. A young technocrat, Miklós Németh, becomes Hungary’s new prime minister to save the country’s appalling
economy. He decides to remove the expensive border control apparatus from the state budget. Thousands of refugees from East Germany are encouraged by rumours that the Hungarian border to Austria will be opened and decide to make a go for it. However, Nemeth’s decision has set him up against formidable adversaries and communist hardliners. A young East German couple is caught up in the political power game: the young man is finally shot dead at the border. This tragic event paradoxically accelerates Nemeth’s final decision to open up the borders. Soon after, the Berlin Wall falls.
The film follows the personal account of the then prime minister of Hungary, Miklós Németh, underpinned by archive footage and reconstructions of various scenes and conversations based on comprehensive journalistic research and detailed testimony. Reconstructed conversations from confidential meetings have been re-recorded with speakers to superimpose the resulting sound track onto real-life film and video footage of the historical persons concerned in similar settings. This device has enabled Østergaard to recreate the actual events with the personalities who were genuinely involved, thus retaining their authenticity and the spirit of the times. It also allows the audience to reflect on the historic events covered by the film and the way they interrelate.
Directed by
Anders Østergaard
Written by
Anders Østergaard
Erzsébet Rácz
Editors
Pernille Bech-Christensen
Szilvia Ruszev
Cinematography
Simon Plum
DFF
Music
Stein Berge Svendsen
Supervising Producer
Georg Tschurtschenthaler
Line Producer
Kathrin Isberner
Eszter Gyárfás
Júlia Berkes
Cecilia Valsted
Historical Advisor
Hans-Hermann Hertle
Sound
Tamás Dévényi
Péter Benjámin Lukács
Márk Hörömpöli
Oliver Stahn
Falco Seliger
Thomas Koerber
Producer
Lise Lense-Møller
Co-Producer
Christian Beetz
Viktória Petrányi
Kristian Mosvold
Stefan Frost
Henrik Underbjerg
Editors
Martin Pieper (ZDF/ARTE)
Mette Hoffmann Meyer (DR)
Rolf Bergmann (RBB)
Barbara Truyen (VPRO)
Peter Gottschalk (ARTE G.E.I.E.)
Jenny Westergård (Yle)
Tore Tomter (NRK)
Daniel Pynnönen (UR)
Katrin Rajasaare (ERR)
Sales & distribution
- Press kit
- Press photos
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„Just in diesem Moment überraschen uns die aus dem Theaterbereich stammenden jungen Regisseure Hans Block und Moritz Riesewieck mit einem erstaunlichen Dokumentarfilm, der seit Monaten Publikum und Kritik auf den wichtigsten Festivals der Welt elektrisiert. Völlig zu Recht: Es ist, als würden einem die Scheuklappen weggerissen, als sähe man das, was sich seit Jahren direkt vor unseren Augen abspielt, zum ersten Mal unverschleiert... eine fesselnde ,Doku noir' mit höchstem Anspruch...Dieser Film müsste an allen Schulen gezeigt werden.“
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
17.05.2018
