Go West - Freiheit um jeden Preis (Go West - Freedom at Any Price) is a 2011 German television miniseries directed by Andreas Linke. Set in the summer of 1984, the story concentrates on three friends trying to escape East Germany.

The series originally was broadcast in Germany in two two-hour segments on January 6 and January 7, 2011 on ProSieben.

Story

Summer 1984, East Germany: Three friends, who couldn't be more different from each other. The 18-year old Frank Korbach is hopeful about a future as an actor. His best friend Thomas Peitz once again hasn't shown up to start his military service and is about to desert the colors. Together with the adventurous but yet naive Alex Baumgarten, Thomas wants to make a dream come true the three of them have since they were little kids: The escape into the west.

Frank, who wants to follow his acting career in East Germany, brings his friends to border, when a special force of the Stasi

Stasi

The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...

 shows up. Alex, Thomas and Frank can come through for now. Of all people, Franks father, Major Kurt Korbach, has to go after his own son together with Stasi hardliner Leutnant Heinrich Frey. The merciless chase becomes a real test for Thomas, Alex and Frank's friendship.

Production

Before production started, all three main actors hiked from Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 to Erfurt

Erfurt

Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...

, the site of the film. On December 20, 2010, the German channel ProSieben released a video from the trip that Moya, Dinda and Lau took. The very same day, a two-minutes trailer was released; followed by a short thirty seconds trailer, assisted by music from Udo Lindenberg

Udo Lindenberg

Udo Lindenberg is a German rock musician and composer.-Career:Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969 Lindenberg founded his first band Free Orbit and also appeared as a studio and guest musician . In 1970 he collaborated as a drummer with jazz-saxophonist Klaus Doldinger in...

.

Cast

• Sergej Moya
  Sergej Moya
  Sergej Moya is a German actor. He won the Undine Award for Best Young Leading Actor in the 2005 film Keller – Teenage Wasteland.Moya started his career during his early teens, in the beginning of the 21st century....
  
   ..... Frank Korbach
• Franz Dinda ..... Thomas Peitz
• Frederick Lau
  Frederick Lau
  Frederick Lau is a German actor. He grew up and still lives in Berlin-Steglitz. He was awarded with the Deutscher Filmpreis for portraying the student Tim on the film Die Welle based on the novel by Dennis Gansel...
  
   ..... Alex Baumgarten
• Inez Bjørg David
  Inez Bjørg David
  Inez Björg David is a Danish and German actress.- Life :She went to a theatre school in Copenhagen and took private acting classes. Fluent in German, she featured in featured in the filmlets "The Date", "Dasein" and "Wilde Jungs"...
  
   ..... Maria Steiner
• Herbert Knaup ..... Major Kurt Korbach
• Matthias Koeberlin ..... Leutnant Heinrich Frey
• Jan Gregor Kremp ..... Max Steiner
• David C. Bunners ..... Oswald Peitz
• Inka Friedrich
  Inka Friedrich
  Inka Friedrich is a German actress.Having studied at the Berlin University of the Arts, Friedrich won the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress for her starring role in the 2005 film Sommer vorm Balkon....
  
  ..... Beate Korbach

Reception

The miniseries was well received and praised by critics. Rainer Tittelbach said, "This movie is really big television ... It's accurate, physical and absorbing ... Go West is a obligation for everyone who loves intelligent, young and emotional television." Meanwhile, Kino.de writes: "There were many escape dramas, but not one that was written for the young target group ... and has found with Sergej Moya, Franz Dinda and Frederick Lau, three of Germans young talents, who also show much of body assignment." "Moving TV event about freedom and friendship", says the TV Movie. And TV Direkt writes: "Brilliant actors in a fascinating story."

DVD releases

Go West - Freiheit um jeden Preis is going to be released on DVD on January 10, 2011.