After falling into a coma just before the unexpected collapse of the Berlin Wall, hardened Communist Christiane (Katrin Saß) wakes a few months later in a world where everything she's ever believed in has disappeared.
It should be a shock to the system, but Christiane doesn't realise anything's changed.
Duped by her son Alex (Daniel Brühl) and daughter Ariane (Maria Simon) to save her from a fatal heart attack, Christiane thinks East Germany is alive and well. Alex plays pre-recorded TV broadcasts to keep her in the dark and Ariane hides her uniform every time she comes home from her new job at a fast food restaurant.
A blackly comic satire in the Rip Van Winkle mode, "Good Bye Lenin!" takes an askance view at the epoch-making events of 1989 and the cultural upheaval that led to the Red Flag being swapped for the Coca-Cola emblem. Alternating digs at the blind unquestioning nature of the Communist masses with criticism of the crass excess of the capitalist consumer paradise, "Good Bye Lenin!" plays both sides of the political spectrum for laughs.
Alex's trials and tribulations (from searching for bland Communist-era food in the aisles of the revamped local supermarket, to setting up fake news reports to explain the sudden appearance of adverts and West German migrants) are initially funny, yet after two hours they begin to grate as writer-director Wolfgang Becker's scenario runs out of steam. There's enough material here for a sketch, but not a feature film, which eventually leaves the movie's ingenious idea looking tired before its time.
Winner of Best European Film at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival, "Good Bye Lenin!" has its moments, but you can't help wishing Becker had asked the old boy to make his good byes a little sooner.
In German with English subtitles.
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
