Have you seen it? You should. It’s the story of a kid growing up in east Berlin before the fall of the Berlin wall and the socialist regime with his mother and sister. His mother -a proud socialist- works as a consumer activist serving the people by sending letters to companies about their products and how they can be improved.

When she one night sees her son at an anti-communist march, she has a heart attack and falls in a come…for 8 months. During those 8 months, the Berlin wall falls, communism is no more and the world around them changes. She being in a coma and oblivious to those changes, one day awakens.

The doctor tells her son that there’s a large chance of her not surviving another heart attack and that she should under no circumstance come under any pressure. The son knowing that the fall of communism, the reunification of Germany and all the changes it brought would indeed be such a shock to his mother, does everything in his power to make the world around her look as if nothing has changed at all.

From getting his friend and colleague, Denis (Florian Lukas) to produce 80’s style news interviews to trying to get his hands on old consumer brand goods (or just their packages), he’s relentless in his strive to bring back “the olden days” of East Germany.

After “Run Lola Run” (Lola Rennt) this is now my new favorite German production of all time.

One shouldn’t be misled to think this movie glorifies communism in any way, but it rather shows the fight of this young man against the changes taking place around them (however positive) for the sake of keeping his mother alive as long as possible. The movie has its funny moments but isn’t a comedy. Very good acting by Daniel Br?hl (Alex) and Katrin Sa? (Christiane Kerner).

Watch it. You won’t regret it.

You can read a full Synopsis of the story at the official Good Bye, Lenin site (the music used there (”Summer 78″) is a snippet of the score used in the movie. A damn good score by Yann Tiersen.)
Watch the trailer here.