Reviewed by EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating * * * * *)
It's 1989 in Berlin. The Communist East is being manhandled into a civil union with the capitalist West.
Christiane Kerner is a proud daughter of the socialist state and solo mother-of-two who has a heart attack when she sees her son at a demonstration. She goes into a coma and wakes up months later after the Wall has come down and her city and country are about to be removed from the map.
Alex (Daniel Bruhl) and Ariane (Maria Simon) have embraced the new democracy; he's installing satellite dishes and she's flipping burgers.
Realising that the shock of the news would kill Mum, Alex creates a fake world inside the bunker of their flat: finding pre-revolution food, making fake TV news broadcasts, even trading up to a Trabant. Subtle and satirical: who said the Germans have no sense of humour?
(German with English subtitles)
DVD, video rental Out now
Goodbye Lenin
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