The Tunnel (4½ Stars)

This is a German film, made in 2001, based on a true story. The names have been changed, but the film's audio complementary reveals the names of the real characters. The story takes place in 1961-1962, and most of the characters were still alive in 2001, as revealed by the "What happens next" texts.

In 1961 Harry Melchior was the best swimmer in the DDR (East Germany). Two weeks after winning the national swimming championship he escaped to West Berlin, using a fake passport. He was determined to rescue his sister Lotte from the East, so together with his best friend Mathis, who had fled from East Berlin through the sewers, he began to build a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. The tunnel was 145 meters long, seven meters below the ground. Their plan was to rescue 32 people from the East, all of them friends and relatives of the people building the tunnel.

Initially there were problems with building the tunnel, because it had to be constructed part time. Then an American film company became aware of the project, and they paid the people building the tunnel 15,000 Marks each for the exclusive rights to film the escape. This financial backing made it possible for the builders to work full time.

It's chilling to see how deviously the East German secret police, the Stasi, operated. They tortured suspects and blackmailed citizens to spy for them. As I've often pointed out, the supposedly Communist government of East Germany continued to operate in the spirit of Hitler's Fascist government.

I almost gave the film five stars, but I deducted half a star because the film is unnecessarily long. It runs for 160 minutes, but I feel it could have been compressed to less than two hours without losing any of the drama.

This film was also released in England and America with subtitles, but it's now out of print everywhere. I'm glad I bought it in 2005 when I still had a chance.