Although it opens in East Berlin in 1989 and spans the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the reunification of Germany, this is most definitely not a history lesson. Instead, it’s a funny, sad, heart-string tugging family story, using the collapse of the East German communist state as a backdrop.
The family are Alex (Daniel Bruhl), his sister, and their mother, Christiane (Katrin Sass), who’s a dedicated socialist. She slips into a coma just days before the fall of the Wall and when she awakens 8 months later, her doctors warn Alex her health is so fragile that any shock could kill her.
So he embarks on an ambitious and increasingly ludicrous scheme to prevent her from learning of the monumental changes that have occurred by pretending not only that the GDR still exists but that it has actually triumphed over capitalism. This involves shutting her off from the outside world, then creating fake tv news programmes on video to persuade mum that West Germans have become so disillusioned with the excesses of free enterprise that they’re swarming east in their thousands. He also bribes friends and family, and even a former cosmonaut, to participate in the charade.
It sounds like the set up for one of those farcical comedies where the audience is asked to suspend disbelief in the quest for an easy laugh, but its to director Wolfgang Becker’s credit that the story is anything but that. He skilfully blends the comic potential of a ridiculous premise with the sadness of seeing an entire culture swept away in the space of a few months to create what he describes as “a sad comedy” of ordinary folk caught up in the whirlwind of uncontrollable change.
GOODBYE LENIN picked up 9 awards, including Best European film, on its release in 2003, and became the most successful German film to date, but that's not why it's worth seeing. You should watch it because it's a damn good story very well told.
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