Judgment in Berlin
- Martin Sheen: Herbert J. Stern
- Jutta Speidel: Sigrid Radke
- Sam Wanamaker: Bernard Hellring
- Max Gail: Judah Best
- Joshua Sinclair: Alan Sherman
- Carl Lumbly: Edwin Palmer
- Jürgen Heinrich: Yuri Andreyev
- Harris Yulin: Bruno Ristau
- Helga Sloop: Jury Foreman
A judge for Berlin is a film by director Leo Penn in 1988, based on the historical novel of the American judge and prosecutor Herbert J. Stern.
Action
Sigrid Radke and Helmut Thiele want to escape from East Germany for a long time. After the first escape plan fails, the two decide to hijack a plane in Poland. Thiele manages to take control of the aircraft and forcing the pilot to land at the airport Berlin -Tempelhof in the west of the city. There the two kidnappers are taken and arrested by the Americans in reception. The two refugees apply for asylum, but the authority wants to see her condemned as hijackers. The independent-minded judge Herbert Stern is asked if he wants to take over the process and agrees with the assumption that the case is relatively clear and there will be a short stay in West Berlin. But the defenders of Radke and Thiele, Bernard Hellring, proves to be very clever and the process starts with a bang: He demands a jury for the German held under U.S. law procedures. The Prosecution rejects this suggestion, but Stern insists on due process.
Real background
The book of star and the film based on the hijacking on 30 August 1978 from Gdansk to Berlin -Tempelhof.
Criticism
" Courtroom drama for authentic case, that maintains solid, primarily but is historically of interest. "