THE DAY MY HUSBAND FALL OUT OF HEAVEN
A film project by Kai Christiansen
In the 60s and 70s nearly 300 fighter jets of the Federal German Air Force, known as “Starfighters”, crashed and more than 100 pilots lost their lives. Never during peacetime have more soldiers been killed. The depth of this trauma of German post-war history can be gauged by the fact that no film has ever explored the dramatic human and political dimension of this tragedy.
In more than 20 locations, from the Allgäu to the Baltic Sea, author Kai Christiansen has found contemporary witnesses for the projected film. He meets women who break their silence often kept over many years and speak of the day their husbands fell from the sky. Pilots serving at the time speak of their addiction to flying, but also of those agonizing seconds when they lost control of their plane and just barely managed to save themselves by parachuting. An attorney reveals a secret file from the Federal Ministry of Defence in Bonn, which analyzes the causes of the fighter jet crashes.
Further research in Norway, Italy and the USA will follow. The camera work is projected for 2008.
The development of the project is funded by the Filmstiftung NRW (Film Foundation Northrhine-Westphalia).
Format: 90 minutes.