Good Bye Lenin! **** (2003, Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon, Florian Lukas) – Classic Movie Review 3886

An East German committed communist mother (Katrin Saß) falls into a coma just before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. When she awakes eight months later, her son Alex (Daniel Brühl) has to convince her that nothing has changed, or the shock could give her a fatal heart attack.

Co-writer/director Wolfgang Becker’s wonderful 2003 German movie triumphs over its bizarrely contrived situation as Alex eradicates the traces of the evil capitalist West from his mum’s bedridden life: his sister’s Burger King uniform, all their trendy new furniture and even their neighbour’s cerise ski pants.

The lad obsesses on transferring new Dutch gherkins into old socialist jars that he finally finds in a dump and starts filming his own news bulletins to show on mum’s telly. Comedy, tears and social satire combine to clever, funny and heartwarming effect in this delicious nostalgia trip.

Brühl won both the European Film Award and the German Film Award for Best Actor. The film won the London Film Critics’ Circle award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The title is exactly expressed as Good Bye Lenin! at the request of the director.

It was filmed at the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin and around Plattenbauten near Alexanderplatz.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3886
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