Sunday, June 26, 2022

Tunnel 29

The Tunnel is a 77-minute black-and-white documentary film that chronicled how three West Berlin university students organized the escape of 29 friends and family members by digging a tunnel underneath the Berlin Wall from a former factory in West Berlin into the Communist East. It was shot by NBC cameramen and first aired in the US on December 10th, 1962. It was produced by Reuven Frank and narrated by Piers Anderson. Breathtaking to watch 60 years later! Mind-blowing viewing!

I also recommend the BBC Radio 4's Tunnel 29 podcast series by Helena Merriman, released in October 2019, and her book Tunnel 29 (Hodder and Stoughton, 2021), where the whole story is told amazingly, and which is being turned into a mini TV series by the producers of Chernobyl. Unputdownable!