Description

Initially a victory line where Allies met at the end of WWII the Iron Curtain quickly became the front of a new kind of war It divided Europe from north to south for fortyfive years Crossing it in either direction was always a political act in many cases it was a crime to even talk about doing so New generations have grown up since these borders came down freed from the restrictions of the Cold War era But what has the Iron Curtain left in its wake

Timothy Phillips travels its full 3000mile route to craft this new peoples history of a defining twentiethcentury conflict Here in the borderlands where a powerful clash of civilizations took form in concrete and barbed wire he uncovers the remarkable stories of everyday people forever imprinted by life in the Curtains shadow

Some look back on the era with nostalgia even affection while others despise it unable to forgive the decades of hardship their families and nations endured A director recalls the night his movie premiered in East Germanythe very night the Berlin Wall fell And a railroad worker recounts the hijacking of a passenger train from Czechoslovakia that breached the Curtain granting those aboard immediate asylum in the West These narratives by turns harrowing and heartening paint a vivid portrait of the new Europe that emerged from the ruins