THE FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN A HISTORICAL MISTAKE? A documentary by Franck Cuveillier and Annette Gourdon 1 PRODUCER’S NOTE ovember 2019 will mark the 30th She is fluent in Russian and in German. anniversary of the fall of the Berlin For this project, they decided to focus on Wall and of the collapse of communist N four countries, all of which suffered from regimes throughout Eastern Europe. Yet, the Iron Curtain and underwent popular new migration phenomenons today bring uprisings that were quelled by Russia: East Europe to question its borders once again. Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and For 37 years (1952-1989), millions of Poland. Most of the shooting will take place European citizens lived behind an actual in these countries, especially along the line of Iron Curtain, made of over 5,000 miles the former Iron Curtain. Additionally, several of walls and fences preventing them from interviews will be led in Paris and in Moscow. crossing to the West without their country’s formal authorization. It seems interesting As we only have so much time to see this to us to shed light on this specific period in production through, we have decided to European history, at a time when European approach two TV channels, in Poland and nations are reconsidering the 1985 Schengen in Belgium, which already own archives Agreement signed by Western Europe. from that time: TVP and RTBF, respectively. A team from the latter, for example, filmed The goal of this film is to tell the story of the East Germany, Poland and Russia in 1987, Iron Curtain that sliced Europe in half, with aboard a train traveling from Brussels to distance and perspective. How did it come Beijing. We have also found numerous copy- to be, at the end of the War? Who thought it write-free archives regarding the post-war up on the Russian side? How was it imposed era in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland upon Eastern countries? What was life like and East Germany. They are available eastward of the Curtain, at the height of on the Critical Past platform and mainly the Cold War? And what were the reasons originate from the US national archives. and the consequences of its dismantling? Franck Cuveillier and Annette Gourdon offer a new interpretation of this 20th-century landmark, through their gaze as filmmakers. They highlight the impact of History on the destiny of millions of people. Franck, who speaks German, is very familiar with Eastern Europe, while Annette knows Russia like the back of her hand. In 2016, she directed the remarkable "The disbanding of USSR". 2 DIRECTORS’ NOTES ith the distance of time gone by and a new generation of The documentary will combine two parallel narratives: on Whistorians, an innovative point of the one hand, a geopolitical storytelling of the military, view has risen over this historic landmark, especially in Eastern Europe. This economic and political reasons that presided over the perspective is more nuanced and, mostly, erection of the Iron Curtain and later its dismantling ; on freed from the passion and resentment that prevailed immediately after the the other hand, a personal tale of the consequences for downfall of the communist regimes. individual citizens and entire populations. The Iron Curtain played a role for 37 years, some aspects of which are still little The geopolitical narrative will be led by the analysis known. While the decision to build the of historians and researchers with a nuanced Iron Curtain was made in high places, by and informed take on the events (rather than Joseph Stalin, it fell upon Central-European that of politicians, diplomats or former high countries to fund and build it. At first, it officials who might be uncooperative or evasive). was not perceived as a threat to their As for the personal narrative, we will give the freedom. Despite the growing hardships floor to the men and women who lived through and isolation, it was still a proud symbol this separation of Europe in two and who impart of a newly gained independence for these today their feelings from back then, their hopes, nations, dedicated to showing off strong their tragedies and the consequences of the borders. Amidst post-war instability, when Iron Curtain that they personally experienced. nations were forming and distrusted one another, the Iron Curtain provided a kind of In both cases, we will try as much as possible to film the protection to border populations concerned interviews and accounts in the location of the events with the proximity of their former enemies. described, or at least in a related location. The narrative comes and goes regularly between past and present, Thus, the Curtain also sheltered the at times even superimposing an archive photography rebooting of Eastern economies that had of the Iron Curtain on today’s footage of the area seen most of their industry destroyed where all signs of fences, walls and watchtowers have during the War. In the beginning, the disappeared, thus revealing how time has gone by. United States had nothing against this Iron Curtain, especially as they were pretty busy The historical archives are a prominent feature of financing the reconstruction of Western the film. They illustrate the accounts of historians Europe with the Marshall Plan. However, and witnesses and contribute to the progress of the as tensions arose between the two blocs overall description of the period. We were surprised and the Cold War settled in, the Curtain at the quantity of archives available, footage as well quickly turned into a prison wall, disrupting as photographs, that tell the story of how the Iron the lives of thousands, splitting up families Curtain and the Berlin Wall were built and reveal and isolating a number of territories. the gaze of local citizens upon them at the time. 3 ABSTRACT At the end of the War, Joseph Stalin signed the Warsaw Pact, entrenching Eastern Europe behind thousands of miles of walls, watchtowers and barbed wire. Thus, the Iron Curtain — erect between 1952 and 1989 — was born. ow was it thought of and set up? By The curtain relied on morality, psychology whom and why? As 2019 marks the and politics. How was it perceived? How was Hthirtieth anniversary of its dismantling, it thwarted or even challenged at times? it is now time to review the motivations that And what were the feelings at stake when prompted its construction, its true efficiency it disappeared within just a few months? and its impacts on people and countries. By intertwining this "new" fascinating take Thanks to a new generation of historians and on history and the biographies of tormented to thousands of archive documents available, souls, our film reconsiders the soundness we may analyze History and individual journeys of one monumental idea: splitting Europe in over three generations of German, Czech and two for 37 years. Did it serve any purpose? Polish people who lived in the shadow of the Or was it merely a historical mistake? wall. These Eastern Europeans, even those who couldn’t physically see the wall, have kept it imprinted in their mind ever since. 4 To make the summary below easier to read, we designed chapters, for which we wrote a rough sketch of the narrative. In bold, we added the contribution of researchers who shed new light on these events, through their innovative analyzes and commentaries, based on recent historiographic data. Last, we inserted (in italic) the witnesses we intend to interview and the places we plan to explore as we film. We didn’t specify this for every chapter, but it should be obvious that numerous archive images from the time, from both public and private collections, will illustrate the narration, the interventions of the historians as well as the accounts of the witnesses. 1. MAY 8TH, 1945. t is the end of the war and the beginning of tremendous chaos. US soldiers have rushed to Berlin to prevent the Soviet army from seizing the entire city. Europe is shaken with Iconsiderable migratory waves. The prisoners of war withheld by Germany and the Soviet Union return home. East Germans and West Germans are on the move. The Polish territory is pushed back towards the West. Within a few years, 30 million people are deported, relocated, rootless. Historian and researcher at Geneva University Sandrine Kott, as well as Muriel Blaive, from the Research Institute on Totalitarian Regimes in Prague, remind us of these crucial information, that help understand why the notion of borders is conceived as both absurd and necessary by European populations. We walk a path alongside a river, at the heart of a small wooded valley, with an elderly but fit man. We are in Ceské Velenice, a little town on the border between Austria and the Czech Republic and the embodiment of the simultaneous absurdity and necessity of having a border. (Ceské Velenice represents a paradigm of all the problematics stemming from the Iron Curtain. We shall explore all these local sources, including Berlin and a handful of other emblematic locations in Poland, and visit them regularly throughout the narrative.) 2. THE BOMB. he first two bombs put an end to the war with Japan. But they also gave great edge to the United States over the USSR. On the ground, the various victorious troops have held Ttheir respective positions since the end of combat. But a crisis of confidence, tinged with paranoia, is slowly settling in. The geopolitical situation created when the US resorted to the nuclear weapon has been widening the symbolic and growingly pernicious gap between Western and Soviet zones. "Overestimating the risks and refusing to take into account the security needs of the others" (Pierre Grosser) has started a spiral of distrust.