Alex Feil

The Small Escape

Alex Feil

1964. Berlin is a divided city. Flight from the German Democratic Republic is punished with an order to fire. Still, many people desperately try to cross the border. People forge identity papers, dig tunnels, climb into hot-air balloons and hide in cars going to the West - towards freedom. But as large vehicles are getting controlled more frequently and thoroughly, a West Berliner has a seemingly impossible but ingenious idea: the smallest and most inconspicuous car available at the time, the BMW Isetta, should help him smuggle a man across the border into the West.