The eight months beginning in October of 1989 were a period
of great turbulence and accelerated change in Berlin. Young Easterners
formed mass protests, Erich Honecker resigned as head of the Communist
government, the Berlin Wall came down, the people stormed the Stasi headquarters
to prevent the destruction of their files, thousands with degrees in Marxist
Economics found themselves unemployed, the East German mark was phased
out, western corporations set up shop, in short, East Berlin became unrecognisable
in a short space of time. 'Good Bye, Lenin!' captures the profound effects
of this transformation by making these events the background of a story
which ingeniously updates Rip van Winkle.
As a boy living in East Berlin in 1979, Alex Kerner (Daniel Bruehl) dreamed
of representing his beloved GDR in space, just like his hero the cosmonaut
Sigmund Jaehn. Ten years later, and his disillusionment leads him to join
a youth march against the State, where the sight of his brutal arrest
causes his idealistic mother Christiane (Kathrin Sass) to have a heart
attack and sink into a coma. Eight months later, when Christiane wakes
up, her doctor warns Alex that she must be protected from any excitement
- and so Alex sets out to conceal the shock of reunification from Christiane,
helped by his Russian girlfriend Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), his sister
Ariane (Maria Simon), his colleague Denis (Florian Lukas) and various
friends and neighbours. A deceit which starts out as a simple Communist-era
makeover of their apartment spirals out of control as Christiane regains
the ability to walk, and soon Alex's creative lies escalate into no less
than a thorough reinterpretation of the entire relationship between East
and West, where the world he conjures for his mother starts to resemble
neither the old world she left behind nor the new one she has entered,
but rather the utopian ideal of which they had both always dreamed.
Alex's voiceover commentary is suffused with the kind of familiar double-speak
which becomes second nature to those who have lived under a repressive
government, except that not even the new West, with all the unemployment
and social iniquity that it brings, is immune from his dry irony. The
absurdly elaborate attempts to shelter his mother from reality are very
funny, but his determination, inspired as it by a deep affection for his
mother, is also touching, making him one of the most likeable onscreen
clowns of recent times.
Wolfgang Becker's skills in writing are matched by his director's eye
for striking settings (like a fully furnished flat with an entire wall
missing) and resonant images (like a brass torso of Lenin being lifted
overhead by a helicopter - a bittersweet homage to the bittersweet opening
shot of Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita', with its crucified Jesus on a helicopter
above hedonist, consumerist Rome). The film combines fairytale elements
with actual documentary footage, and the personal with the political,
creating a contemporary allegory of the dreams and delusions upon which
the lives of East Germans were sustained.
'Good Bye, Lenin!' is a satire, as entertaining as it is reflective,
on the difficult compromises and adjustments in thought required by reunification,
when enemies have become friends and old dreams have passed their used-by
date. Highly recommended.
Anton Bitel, 13.07.03
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