December 1961: Marta is a young girl who saw 30 miles of barbed wire appear across her city overnight, separating Berlin into West and East―with Marta’s home on the Communist Bloc–controlled eastern side.

January 1989: Now a spray-painted concrete monolith, the Berlin Wall bisects the city. Kurt, a young East Berliner, often wonders what those living on the other side must think of their unseen neighbors. Do they hate the people of East Germany as completely as Kurt has been instructed to hate them?

Inspired by real events, Escape from East Berlin tells two stories of daring bids of freedom from the Eastern Bloc, set decades apart and relayed in alternating perspectives.