August 1961: The GDR closes the sector borders in Berlin, the city is divided. A year later, a group of 29 people from the GDR managed to escape through a 135 meter long tunnel to the west. For more than four months, 41 students from West Berlin dug this tunnel. They put their lives on the line - for friends, relatives, lovers and political ideals. They sell the film rights to the US television station NBC .: In 1999 the award-winning documentary "The Tunnel" tells the specta... (Full plot summary below)
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August 1961: The GDR closes the sector borders in Berlin, the city is divided. A year later, a group of 29 people from the GDR managed to escape through a 135 meter long tunnel to the west. For more than four months, 41 students from West Berlin dug this tunnel. They put their lives on the line - for friends, relatives, lovers and political ideals. They sell the film rights to the US television station NBC .: In 1999 the award-winning documentary "The Tunnel" tells the spectacular story of this escape. Today, over 20 years later, the film has been remake in HD and in Cinescope format. The story and the spectacular NBC material that was recovered from the attic of one of the tunnel builders have lost none of their topicality, explosiveness and uniqueness in the face of global refugee crises, isolation and walls. The two Italians Mimmo and Gigi, who dug the tunnel for their friend Peter Schmidt and later concluded the deal with NBC, have already died. But some of the tunnel builders, now in their eighties, are still alive. They tell their stories, including Inge and Klaus Stürmer. The joint attempt to escape in 1961 failed: only Klaus Stürmer managed to escape to the West. Inge Stürmer, mother of a toddler and pregnant, was arrested and sentenced to prison. Klaus Stürmer worked on the tunnel to bring his family to him. The images of the tunnel construction and the successful escape went around the world when the film was broadcast by NBC to an audience of millions on December 10, 1962. "Tunnel of Freedom" tells of the daring young people, of trust and solidarity, of the search for freedom and overcoming walls. The film combines emotionally charged biographies into a unique political drama of the Iron Curtain.
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