People’s tendency to see the past through rosy glasses can manifest itself in various forms, some of which might seem incomprehensible to those born later or living in different places. A common example is the notion, widely held among large sections of former Communist countries in Eastern Europe, that the old system wasn’t as bad as official post-Communist truths or Cold War propaganda might suggest and that it was even, in some aspects, superior to modern liberal capitalism. A similar phenomenon has even been observed in Germany, the last country one might expect to find it, where it is known by the term ostalgie. A film that both illustrated and, in some ways, perpetuated this sentiment is Good Bye, Lenin!, a 2003 comedy directed by Wolfgang Becker.
The plot begins in East Berlin in October 1989, around the time the German Democratic Republic is set to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its founding. The protagonist, played by Daniel Brühl, is Alex Kerner, a young man who lives with his mother Christianne (played by Katrin Sass), a dedicated activist of the ruling Socialist Unity Party, his older sister Ariane (played by Maria Simon), and her five-year-old daughter. Like so many young people, Alex hates the regime that deprived his compatriots of the freedom and prosperity visible on the other side of the Berlin Wall. He joins anti-government demonstrations and gets arrested and beaten by the police, which causes his mother to suffer a heart attack and fall into a coma. Soon afterwards, the Berlin Wall falls, free elections are held, and the new government begins working on rapid reunification with West Germany. Alex and his family must now adapt to the new circumstances, as symbols of the Communist regime are removed, state institutions close, and the streets of East Berlin begin to see modern Western cars, restaurants, and other material goods that haven’t been available for decades. After eight months, Christianne wakes up from her coma, but doctors warn that her heart is weak and that another heart attack would be fatal, so they must try to avoid any shock. Knowing that the news about the collapse of the regime and everything she has known might represent such a shock, Alex decides not to tell her about these epochal changes. Instead, they pretend that the old regime still exists and even turn their apartment into a living museum where Christianne easily buys into the illusion. However, the ruse, which even involves faking television news, becomes increasingly complicated and difficult as time goes by.
The basic premise behind Good Bye, Lenin! isn’t particularly original. It has been used, in one way or another, for a long time, with one of the more famous examples being “The Siege of Berlin,” a 1875 short story by French writer Alphonse Daudet, in which an elderly Napoleonic-era veteran is deceived by his granddaughter about his country’s shameful defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Becker and his co-writer Bernd Lichtenberg, however, depict an event that could hardly be characterised as anything other than a national triumph, but their script, finished more than a decade after the event, approaches it with a combination of critical distance, nostalgia, and humour. This bittersweet story about a son trying to keep his mother in blissful ignorance can be seen as a metaphor for the GDR, a country whose socialist ideals and noble declarations hid the brutal truth of oppression and whose citizens, out of fear or conformism, participated in a deception not very different from the one taking place in Kerner’s apartment. Like all those citizens, young Alex, in the end, deceives himself, using the fantasy of a still-existing GDR as an opportunity to relive his childhood, when life seemed better, filled with opportunity, wonder, and a bright future, embodied in Sigmund Jähn, the East German cosmonaut and Alex’s childhood hero, whose lookalike, played by Stefan Walz, appears near the end in a fantastic scene.
The same distance that served the authors also served the film. Good Bye, Lenin! became a massive hit not only in Germany but in the rest of Europe, especially in its eastern parts, where audiences found the issues facing the protagonists very similar to those in other post-Communist countries. Critics were also enamoured with the film, which won many prestigious awards, including the European equivalent of the Oscar. Well-directed, with a proper combination of historical reenactment, pathos, and humour, Good Bye, Lenin! deserved such acclaim. US critics, on the other hand, weren’t as enthusiastic, and Good Bye, Lenin! was shunned for a nomination for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The reason might again be found in politics, as Germany at the time refused to join the Americans in their invasion and occupation of Iraq. This, however, didn’t prevent Daniel Brühl from getting a role in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and later becoming an international star. As time goes by, Good Bye, Lenin! is becoming not only an entertaining film but also an interesting document of an epoch that looks increasingly bright and optimistic in our increasingly dysfunctional world. On the other hand, its main premise might not seem as funny in a world dominated by AI image creations, social media bubbles, and more people willing to live in their own parallel realities.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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