Berlin Hero

Berlin, 23 June 1984: an East German train unexpectedly continues past Friedrichstrasse station into West German territory. On night duty at the station is young Michael Hartung.

Decades later, as the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, the media is hungry for new angles. Soon Micha finds his own face on the front page, reading that he is the hero of Berlin, the man responsible for 127 people making it to the West. Life starts smiling on him: interview requests pour in, business begins to flourish, and even women start noticing the middle-aged hero. The truth behind the events, however, is far less glamorous, and Micha soon finds himself navigating an ever-growing web of misunderstandings, half-truths, and outright lies.

Released posthumously, Berlin Hero was Wolfgang Becker's (1954–2024) final film. Like his breakthrough work, the Ostalgia-wave film Good Bye Lenin! (2003) – which had its Finnish premiere at Espoo Ciné – Berlin Hero also grapples with the trauma of the two Germanys. Yet Becker had a rare gift for tackling even weighty themes with warm humour and remarkable lightness.

Mickael Suominen