One flew over the Kremlin

1987. The Soviet military is outmanoeuvred by a teenager. Only equipped with a map he crosses the border in a chartered Cessna and lands in the heart of Moscow, leaving the reputation of the military in tatters and breaching the integrity of the iron curtain.

Year

2012

Length

45/52 min

Director

Gabriele Denecke

It is the 28th of May 1987, shortly after 7 pm. The world is richer by one sensation and the Soviet Union is totally disgraced. What had happened? The nineteen-year-old Mathias Rust from Wedel near Hamburg had landed his single engine Cessna 172 directly next to the Red Square in Moscow. No one had stopped him on his several hour flight through the Soviet airspace. The Soviet Air Force, so far considered invincible, is exposed to ridicule and mockery. Thousands of missiles, state of the art air defence radars and antiaircraft defences overcome by an amateur pilot, a messenger of peace, who wanted to build a bridge between East and West with his flight. The flight scandal becomes state affair, the minister of defence has to resign and many highranking officers have to follow. The young German pilot’s intent had been to move the deadlocked disarmament talks along, in order to bring peace between East and West.

Mathias Rust himself says today: “If I would have known the outcome of this, I would not have done it. This is something you can only do if you don’t know the consequences and the development of a story”. 25 years later, exclusively for this documentary, Rust talks for the first time in detail about his flight, his motives and the stay in the Moscow prison afterwards. The former “high-flyer” is still a fascinating personality. Film author Gabriele Denecke undertakes a very special journey through time to the places and people who were involved then, politically, militarily or journalistically.

Credits

Director
Gabriele Denecke

Cinematography
Till Ludwig

Editor
Pamela Homann

Sound
Thomas Funk

Music
Eike Hosenfeld
Moritz Denis
Tim Stanzel

Sound Mix
Jörg Höhne

Line Producer
Kathrin Isberner

Production Manager
Nick Pastucha

Producer
Anahita Nazemi
Sarah Maret

Executive Producer
Christian Beetz

Commissioning Editor
Georg Hafner

Sales & distribution

Trailer

„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