''Good Bye Lenin!'' is a 2003 German tragicomedy film, directed by Wolfgang Becker. The cast includes Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, and Maria Simon. The story follows a family in East Germany (GDR); the mother (Sass) is dedicated to the socialist cause and falls into a coma in October 1989, shortly before the November revolution. When she awakens eight months later in June 1990, her son (Brühl) attempts to protect her from a fatal shock by concealing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in East Germany. Most scenes were shot at the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin and around Plattenbauten near

Alexanderplatz () ( en, Alexander Square) is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the nort ...

. ''Good Bye Lenin!'' received numerous honours, including 2003's European Film Award for Best Film and German Film Award for Best Fiction Film.

Plot

The film is set in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

, in the period from October 1989 to a few days after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

in October 1990. Alex Kerner lives with his mother Christiane, his sister Ariane, and her infant daughter Paula. Alex's father purportedly abandoned the family for a mistress in the West in 1978. His mother joined the Socialist Unity Party and devotes her time to advocating for citizens. While Christiane believes socialism can improve Germany and the world, her children are realistic. Alex is disgusted with the celebration of East Germany's 40th anniversary and participates in an anti-government demonstration. There he meets a girl but they are separated by the '' Volkspolizei'' before they can introduce themselves. Christiane, seeing Alex being arrested and beaten, suffers a heart attack and falls into a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

because nobody initially comes to her aid. Visiting his mother in hospital, Alex finds that her nurse, Lara, is the girl from the demonstration. She and Alex begin dating shortly afterwards. Erich Honecker resigns, Egon Krenz takes over, the borders are opened, the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

falls Falls may refer to: Places * Waterfalls or rapids * Falls, North Carolina, USA * Falls, West Virginia, USA Other uses * The ropes or wires, fed through davits, that are used to secure and lower a ship's lifeboats. * Falls (surname) * The sepa ...

, East Germany holds

free elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

, and capitalism comes to East Berlin. Alex begins working for a West German firm selling and installing

satellite dishes A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite. The term most commonly means a dish which receives direct-broadcast satellite television ...

. He befriends a western colleague, aspiring filmmaker Denis Domaschke. Ariane's university closes and she works at

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

instead. She begins dating the manager, Rainer, who moves into their apartment. After eight months, Christiane awakens from her coma. Her doctor warns her family that she is still weak and any shock might cause another, possibly fatal, heart attack. Alex resolves to conceal the profound societal changes from her and maintain the illusion that the German Democratic Republic is just as it was before her coma. He, Ariane, and Lara retrieve their old East German furniture from storage, dress in their old clothes, and repackage new Western food in old East German jars. The deception is increasingly complicated as Christiane witnesses strange occurrences, such as a gigantic Coca-Cola banner on an adjacent building. Denis and Alex create fake news broadcasts from old East German news tapes to explain these odd events. Alex and Ariane fail to find where Christiane keeps her life savings (in East German marks) in time to exchange them for West German marks before the deadline. Christiane gets stronger and one day wanders outside while Alex is asleep. She sees her neighbours' furniture stacked in the street, new West German cars for sale, advertisements for Western corporations, and a statue of Lenin being flown away by helicopter. Alex and Ariane take her back home and show her a fake newscast explaining East Germany is now accepting refugees from the West following an economic crisis there. At the family dacha Christiane reveals her own secret: her husband had fled not for a mistress but because of the difficulties he faced for refusing to join the ruling party. The plan had been for the rest of the family to join him. Christiane, fearing the government would take her children if things went wrong, decided to stay. Contrary to what she had told her children, their father wrote many letters that she hid. As she declares her wish to see her husband one last time to make amends, she relapses and is taken back to hospital. Alex meets his father, Robert, who has remarried, has two children, and lives in West Berlin. He convinces him to see Christiane one last time. Under pressure to reveal the truth about the fall of the East, Alex creates a final fake news segment, persuading a taxi driver (who resembles cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn, the first German in space and Alex's childhood hero) to act in the false news report as the new leader of East Germany and to give a speech about opening the borders to the West. However, unbeknownst to Alex, Lara had already recounted the true political developments to Christiane earlier that day. Christiane dies two days later, outliving the German Democratic Republic by three days after German reunification. The family and friends scatter her ashes in the wind using a toy rocket Alex made with his father during childhood.

Cast

Development

For director Wolfgang Becker, work on ''Good Bye Lenin!'' began in the summer of 1999, but for screenwriter Bernd Lichtenberg, the work had already begun almost a decade earlier. Lichtenberg’s experience of the reunification period as a New West Berliner at a similar age to his protagonist Alex was formed into a story which already included many aspects of the later film, but first ended up "in the drawer" for a few years. He stated: “I had the feeling that it simply wasn’t the right time yet.” This only changed when he saw Becker's '' Life is All You Get'' (German: ''Das Leben ist eine Baustelle''). Especially interested in the mix of sadness and comedy, which he himself also envisaged for his film, he believed he had found the right person to bring his idea to life. He was not mistaken. "All of a sudden there was this energy", recalls producer Stefan Arndt during the recording of the 5-page

synopsis A synopsis is a brief summary of the major points of a subject or written work or story, either as prose or as a table; an abridgment or condensation of a work. Synopsis or synopsys may also refer to: * Video synopsis, an approach to create a shor ...

with Becker. “We knew we could tell the story in just the way we would like to.” Nevertheless, it was not an easy process to finish the script. It supposedly took them six drafts plus a few interim versions to complete the script. Lichtenberg wrote the first drafts by himself. He stayed in close contact with Becker who voiced his criticism, especially of the characters. This was an important point for both of them so it was one they argued over as they both wanted to tell the story “through the characters”. The character that underwent the most radical change was Denis, as he was changed from a main character to a side character. The role of Denis, who was previously conceived as an young overweight boy from Turkey who was to be married off against his will, became an amateur film maker, who is as boldly-imaginative as he is practical. After completing the script, which the screenwriter and producer worked on together towards the end, their collaboration was not over. During the actual filming, Lichtenberg was involved whenever Becker wanted more changes.

Soundtrack

The film score was composed by Yann Tiersen, except the version of "Summer 78" sung by Claire Pichet. Stylistically, the music is very similar to Tiersen's earlier work on the soundtrack to ''Amélie''. One piano composition, "Comptine d'un autre été : L'après-midi", is used in both films. Several famous East German songs are featured. Two children, members of the

Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation The Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation, consisting of the Young Pioneers and the Thälmann Pioneers, was a youth organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 13 in East Germany. They were named after Ernst Thälmann, the former leader of the Comm ...

, sing "'' Unsere Heimat''" ('Our Homeland'). Friends of Christiane's (living in the same building) follow with "'" ('Build Up! Build Up!'), another anthem of the

Free German Youth The Free German Youth (german: Freie Deutsche Jugend; FDJ) is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly, it was the official youth movement of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The organization was meant ...

. The final fake newscast with Sigmund Jähn features a rousing rendition of the East German national anthem, "'' Auferstanden aus Ruinen''".

''Ostalgie''

Alex creates fictional newscasts to reminisce about his earlier East German lifestyle as well as a communist environment. He goes out of his way to use East German products to fool his mother such as Spreewald gherkins and although this is for his mother, there is also a hint he himself is creating a fantasy in which he would like to live. Alex lived his whole life with this barrier; therefore the drastic change is hard for him unlike his older sister Ariane. Ariane quickly adopts the new Western ideals and lifestyle, but Alex experiences nostalgia for their former way of life. '' Ostalgie'' is a neologism for the nostalgia for a communist past which is a common theme in ''Good Bye Lenin!'' Alex shows signs of ''ostalgie'' when he begins to increasingly criticise the Western changes in themselves. In 2004 the ''New York Times'' commented on "Ostalgie" which was embodied in the town of Eisenhüttenstadt. It became popular because of ''Good Bye Lenin!'' which imitated Christiane's bedroom. This put a lot of light on the ''ostalgie'' situation, in addition to the film.

Reception

The film received strongly positive reviews, and has a rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. '' Empire'' magazine gave the film four stars out of five, saying: "An ingenious little idea that is funny, moving and—gasp!—even makes you think." The magazine also ranked it 91st in "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010. ''Good Bye Lenin!'' is frequently contrasted with '' The Lives of Others'', which was released three years later, in 2006. Both films portray the legacy of East Germany, but with decidedly different tones.

Accolades

''Good Bye Lenin!'' was submitted for consideration for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

, but not nominated.

References

External links

* (US) * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Good Bye Lenin! 2003 films César Award winners Ostalgie Peaceful Revolution European Film Awards winners (films) Films about communism Films about the Berlin Wall Films directed by Wolfgang Becker (director, born 1954) Films scored by Yann Tiersen Films set in 1978 Films set in 1989 Films set in 1990 Films set in Berlin Films shot in Berlin German coming-of-age comedy-drama films German reunification 2000s German-language films Sony Pictures Classics films Tragicomedy films 2000s political comedy-drama films 2000s coming-of-age comedy-drama films Rip Van Winkle-type stories 2003 comedy films 2003 drama films Films set in West Germany Films set in East Germany Films about mother–son relationships 2000s German films