The Tunnel
The most exciting German film since Das Boot
Released on television in its native Germany a few years ago, The Tunnel boasts the kind of plot that would seem ridiculously implausible if it weren't based on a true story.
The tale of resilience and persistence casts Heino Ferch as a championship East German swimmer who previously served hard time for political dissent. When the Berlin Wall comes up, he wastes little time sneaking past it into West Germany. Once there, Ferch, his engineer brother, and a group of like-minded souls hit upon a scheme as audacious as it is seemingly foolhardy: to tunnel under the Berlin wall, emerge on the East German side, then take their families and loved ones back to the West. Beyond the obvious logistical problems, the schemers face a host of other complications, including the ever-present threat of informers and a savvy East German Raskolnikov hot on their trail, not to mention the presence of an NBC camera crew out to document their Cold War heroics.
The Tunnel is an epic endeavor that works on the broad, sprawling canvas of social and political history. For its dogged diggers, the Cold War is less a scary abstraction than a horrifying, concrete reality that cleaves their existences in two.
The Tunnel is more than just another well-constructed thriller with elements of melodrama. (N. Rabin, The Onion)
The Tunnel
Co-promoted by Program Council
Mon October 3, 2005, 7:00 only, Muenzinger Auditorium
Germany, 2001, in German w/English subtitles, Color, 167 min, unrated • official site
Tickets
10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission.
$7 w/UCB student ID,
$7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.
Parking
Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the
Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters
along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.
RTD Bus
Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus
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Established 1941 by James Sandoe.
First Person Cinema
(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.
C.U. Film Program
(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil
Grillo.
Celebrating Stan
Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.
C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.