Good Bye Lenin

Director: Wolfgang Becker

2003

24 February 2025

See

Alex (Daniel Bruhl) an Ossi (East Berliner) concocts a scheme to make it seem like the East German state (GDR) still exists. He’s a dutiful son and does so to protect the fragile health of his mother Christiane (Katrin Sass) a loyal GDR subject who wakes from a coma after the fall of the Berlin wall. 

Think

The times they are a changin’, but to keep up appearances Alex requires the help of his sister Ariane (Marie Simon) who starts her own family, rejoicing in reunification, even though it means dropping out of university to work at Burger King. His best friend Denis (Florian Lukas), helps too. He’s an aspiring filmmaker, who delights in editing wedding videos with references to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey (“Did you see that transition? The bouquet becomes the cake like the bone becomes the spaceship.”) Along the way Alex meets romantic interest Lara (Chulpan Kamatova) an immigrant from the Soviet Union, first at a protest rally, then as his mother’s nurse. Alex’s efforts at the pretence become more and more labor intensive in an elaborate attempt to make everything seem normal, first with the austere furniture in his mothers bedroom, and the former foodstuff becoming scare and replaced by capitalist paraphernalia, garish colours and consumerism are hard to hide. Then to keep his mother stuck convalescing in her bedroom Alex organises visits by people who will play along by begging, stealing and borrowing favours. Finally when she does venture out unexpectedly they create propaganda videos explaining the news askew, like it’s actually East Germany letting in West German refugees. 

Feel

They’re all microcosms of the macro reality of Berlin moving forward. Continuing to lie becomes untenable, but buys time for Christine to recover on her terms. It allows for her to heal the wounds of the past, explaining why her husband and their father fled to the West, so that they can all move on, or try to.