In 1983, in Berlin, an American member of the secret service puts himself at the service of the GDR. This fascinating documentary tells the story of his life as a "passer-murailles". In 1983, American soldier Jeffrey M. Carney betrayed his country and defected to the East. At the time, he was working in Berlin for the NSA (National Security Agency), which intercepts Soviet airspace communications. But his patriotism and fervor for Reagan had waned: he felt underestimated by his colleagues and had discovered his homosexuality, for which he could be expelled from the army. One night of drinking, the young man crosses the demarcation line at Checkpoint Charlie with the aim of never returning...
Direction
Tight reconstruction of a defection that shouldn't feel this intimate.
Editing
Archival footage woven like a paranoid fever dream.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Carney's codename 'Kid' referenced both his youth and his perceived naivety by East German handlers.
The 'Lavender Scare' parallels here are brutal: Reagan's military purged thousands of gay service members while the Stasi weaponized Carney's closet against him.
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