Sputnik (2013)

Ten-year-old Frederike wants to launch a satellite with her uncle Mike and her friends Fabian and Jonathan, sending a message of peace to the Mir space station. The satellite’s test launch works, but is interrupted by local police official Mauder. The next day, November 4, 1989, Frederike and her two friends receive a second reprimand from their polytechnic secondary school. But the day gets even worse when her uncle is granted permission to leave the GDR and has to leave the country by evening. Mike hands over command to Frederike, who is now captain of the space-enthusiast friends. Inspired by a science-fiction series, the girl comes up with the idea of building a device that will beam her uncle back to the village through the telephone line. Meanwhile, as they have done several times before, her parents secretly plan to leave the GDR, intending to keep it from their daughter for the time being. But Frederike has overheard their plans and disagrees, afraid of losing her friends. To build the device, they need special parts that Frederike can obtain only from Mr. Karl, who runs the local shop, under the counter. But ever since the satellite incident, Mauder has been keeping a closer eye on the children. A few days later, he arrests Mr. Karl for illegal trading and confiscates the glass lens they need. The children manage to get the required materials again by creating a diversion. Oliver sees them doing it and initially intends to report them. But Fabian, Jonathan, and Frederike capture him so he won’t give the group away. On the evening of November 9, 1989, they start the experiment as Günter Schabowski announces the new travel regulations. The device causes a power outage throughout the village. Fabian and Jonathan conclude that, instead of Frederike as planned, all the adults in the tavern run by the Bode family have been beamed away. Frederike desperately searches for her parents, who had themselves gone to Berlin earlier. Using an emergency generator, the children turn on the television and see reports of people gathered at the border in Berlin, including Oliver’s father. The children want to beam the adults back. Since they can’t use a telephone, Oliver comes up with the idea of reaching the people with a radio signal. They manage to restore power to the village of Malkow and send a radio signal to a border post. Pretending to be an NVA colonel, they prevent the soldiers from shooting at their own people. The next day, the parents return from Berlin to great rejoicing. Frederike’s parents no longer plan to move away.