The Picnic

In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain and held a picnic. Word had spread of what was going to happen. Thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the Hungarian borderlands, awaiting an opportunity, surveilled by Stasi agents. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history: that day hundreds would cross from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union - the so-called end of history - all would flow from those dramatic hours.

Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved, The Picnic reconstructs this world-shaping event and its tumultuous aftermath. It shows how freedom can be both dream and disillusionment, and how all we take for granted can vanish in an instant.