’1989’ is a high-politics drama about the collapse of the Iron Curtain. A young and unknown technocrat, Miklós Neméth, is brought in to become Hungary’s new prime minister. He is to save the country’s appalling economy and soon decides to remove the massive – and expensive – border control apparatus from the state budget. He soon finds out, that this decision sets him up against formidable adversaries and communist hardliners. In the meantime, a young couple from East Germany is encouraged by the rumours that the Hungarian border to Austria will be opened for a few days to allow for the Pan-European picnic. Like thousands of other East Germans, they decide to make a go for it, but they are caught up in the political power-game that plays out behind closed doors in the Eastern Bloc. They young man is shot dead at the border, a tragic event that paradoxically accelerates Nemeth’s final decision to open the borders, and soon after the Berlin wall falls

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Anders Østergaard recreates the events of 1989 and invites the audience into the secret meeting rooms through a mixture of ’testimonials’, archive material, recreation, and reconstructed dialogues lip-synch’ed to archive footage of the real political key characters.

In the 1980s, Hungary faced a serious economic crisis, the standard of living dropped significantly again, disillusionment with the ideals and promises of communism spread among the population, preparing the ground for change. To everyone's surprise, the economist Miklos Nemeth was appointed head of the Party in Hungary in 1989, when communism was on the brink of collapse and Nemeth, an outsider with few friends in the Party. He was suddenly responsible for the seemingly impossible task of saving the country from bankruptcy. But Nemeth had to lead a country divided between those who pursued the hope for a peaceful Europe free from oppression and the nuclear menace, while others saw the collapse of everything they believed in, in fact the annihilation of the very states they ruled. For these men, it became a battle of life and death.
Miklós Neméth, decides to test his opponents, the disgruntled hardliners of his own party, but also two seasoned dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania and Erich Honecker of the GDR and allows the Hungarian/Austrian borders to be opened for some days. This leads to the Pan European Picnic - and a welcome escape for many
However following a tragedy, Neméth understands, that the political power games have real consequences for real people, and that he needs to act. He decides to open the borders for good.
The documentary reveals the role that developments in Hungary played in the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent collapse of Communism throughout Eastern Europe. Hungary opened its borders and in October 1989 changed its name to the Republic of Hungary, while the Communist Party disbanded itself. In Czechoslovakia the population protested openly against the communist regime and in November the dissident Vaclav Havel was elected president. And on 9 November the Berlin Wall fell.
1989 offers insight into the high-risk political game that led to the collapse of the iron curtain and subsequently, the Berlin wall, and the tragic human costs of political actions

Original title: 1989: A Statesman Opens Up
A film by Anders Ostergaard and Erzsebet Racz

© 2014, licensed by First Hand Films

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