World War III

Berlin, October 7, 1989. Michael Gorbachev, who is returning from his visit to the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the GDR, boards his plane destined for Moscow. But the plane does not arrive. Gorbachev is never seen again. In Moscow, hardliners have staged a coup. They enforce dramatic changes: economic reforms, disarmament negotiations and internal liberalizations are done away with. For civil and human rights movements in Eastern Europe, this is a hard moment. Armed forces are deployed against the mass demonstrations in the GDR and other Warsaw Pact countries. There is shooting, people are killed in the streets. The Chinese Solution, feared by many observers, has taken its course. Furthermore, the new strong man in the Kremlin, KGB General Vladimir Soshkin, is determined to turn the surprise effect into a strategic advantage. He wants to hit the West at its most vulnerable spot: West Berlin. The political crisis turns into a military one. This could have been an alternative ending to the Cold War. If things had happened this way, military leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtin would have taken the emergency plans out of their drawers. This would have been the beginning of an escalation with disastrous consequences. What would a war between the two blocks have looked like? Which political and military reasons would have caused it? The story line of 'World War III' is entirely fictional, yet the project remains a documentary because it is based on authentic military planning. The script was developed in strong cooperation with military consultants from the USA, Russia, England and Germany.