Flight Novella

Erfurt, 1965: two students meet at the ‘House of the Red Army’. She is from East Germany, 21 years old, he is Swiss, 23. They fall in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together, but they’re separated by the Iron Curtain. The idea that he might join her in the East is inconceivable, so they desperately look for a way to get her to the West. When they realise that it is not possible to do it legally, they come up with a brilliant plan to subvert the system of control. Since East Germany does everything it can to prevent people from leaving the country, they try it the other way around, trying to sneak in. They plan everything meticulously, but when the decisive moment comes, nothing goes as planned…

Thomas Strässle tells the story of the power of love against the crushing power of political systems. A true story that will take your breath away – the story of two young people who risk everything. A story that Strässle is able to tell with such intimacy and precision because it is the story of his own parents.