I was vacationing on Lake Balaton, roughly the same time as these events takes place, but just so that people understand, the surveillance of East German citizens was a well guarded secret. I mean, sure, we could recognize by the sandal wear of Germans, who was from the GDR, and who was from the FRG, but even so, establishing contact was risqué. Beyond the fact that not many Germans tried Russian, a common obligatory language and therefore stayed among other Germans, it wasn't likely to camp near them.
I've to admit with a bit of envy, that the set designers deserve the highest available German award for their work. They didn't lean into nostalgia like Stranger Things that occasionally goofs on available items, they've recreated 1980s Hungary, not as I remember it, but as it actually was.
My rating of 8 relies on a bit of a nitpicking. In Under the Same Sky and Deutschland'83 they make it a crucial point, that West Germans say Orange, not Apfelsinnen, so it's a tad anachronistic that they would have said Orange marmalade. The second thing is, that we, Hungarians, while having a more eased travel, couldn't travel to the capitalist abroad once a year in 1986, unless she meant that Tamás in connection to his hotel work already own a blue passport with such exception. For the rest of us, it was once every 3 years after 1986, which never came to pass, as it was lowered to once a year in '88, and then communism ended. The third thing is that Tamás claims to be from Debrecen, and people from there are nigh immediately recognized in Hungary by their strong emphasis on the letter t.
I've to admit with a bit of envy, that the set designers deserve the highest available German award for their work. They didn't lean into nostalgia like Stranger Things that occasionally goofs on available items, they've recreated 1980s Hungary, not as I remember it, but as it actually was.
My rating of 8 relies on a bit of a nitpicking. In Under the Same Sky and Deutschland'83 they make it a crucial point, that West Germans say Orange, not Apfelsinnen, so it's a tad anachronistic that they would have said Orange marmalade. The second thing is, that we, Hungarians, while having a more eased travel, couldn't travel to the capitalist abroad once a year in 1986, unless she meant that Tamás in connection to his hotel work already own a blue passport with such exception. For the rest of us, it was once every 3 years after 1986, which never came to pass, as it was lowered to once a year in '88, and then communism ended. The third thing is that Tamás claims to be from Debrecen, and people from there are nigh immediately recognized in Hungary by their strong emphasis on the letter t.
