by Max Zänker
LV Life Editor
Alex Kerner is an ordinary 21 year old. Just like every man of his age, he sometimes sleeps too long and rebels against his parents.
Even his love life is not very exciting, as his date for the night is not a hot girl, but his sister’s infant daughter, whom he babysits.
Under normal circumstances, his story would not be worth making a movie out of or even telling.
But Alex does not live in ordinary circumstances or in ordinary times, and thus, Germany’s “Goodbye Lenin” tells his story.
Alex lives in the East Berlin of 1990 in the German Democratic Republic, a country changing at incredible speed, shortly before the reunion with West Germany.
But don’t be afraid, this movie is not about history, rather history is the sidebar in this comedy, which tells the personal story of Alex and his own experiences within the winds of change, as he rebuilds and keeps the German Democratic Republic alive in the 850 square feet of his family’s apartment.
Alex’s mother Christiane, a very serious comrade, is on her way to the 40th anniversary of the GDR when she sees her son beaten up by the police during a peaceful demonstration for more public freedom.
Overwhelmed by the double shock of the state violence against her son and the fact that Alex does not share her communistic ideals, she suffers from a heart attack and falls into a coma.
Eight months later, Christiane Kerner wakes up in the same city, but in another country and another culture.
The wall has come down. Western brands like Coca-Cola and Ikea have taken the old East by storm and swept away everything that Kerner’s mother ever believed in.
Alex’s quest is to keep this a secret from her. The doctor tells him any new shock could kill his mother, so Alex decides to keep the GDR alive for her and hide all western changes and influences.
Newcomer Daniel Brühl, as Kerner, and Katrin Saß, shining as his mother, make the audience forget that there actually is not much going on in this movie.
There are no special effects or explosions involved and the production values are occasionally nostalgic, as from time to time even the edge of the boom-microphone dips into the frame.
Everything that keeps the viewer in his seat is the poignant and personal story about the Kerner family and their struggles to find themselves and stay together in hard political and personal times.
Moviegoers will learn about the history of Germany without even realizing it, as director Wolfgang Becker lets Kerner voice over the pictures of historic incidents like the fall of the Berlin wall, the first reunified German election or the German success at the Soccer World Championship in 1990. This is all done in a humorous way that mirrors the mood throughout the film.
When Alex starts staging the GDR in his family’s apartment, the movie shifts from it’s dramatic beginning into it’s real strength: the comedy.
Sometimes even slapstick-like antics lie in Kerner’s desperate struggle to recreate old East German brands and his fight against the western take-over that manifests in the huge Coca-Cola banner unfurled in front of his mother’s window.
But reality cannot be locked out, so Alex goes to further heights to change history and retell the fate of the GDR like a communist fairy tale with a fake television news program when things cannot be ignored any longer.
During the staging of his mother’s communist dream, Alex faces his own struggle with the freedom and westernization he had fought for.
He realizes that maybe things were not so bad “back in the old days,” which lie not even one year behind him.
“Goodbye Lenin” is playing in Laemmle’s Playhouse Theatre in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 844-6500.
