“GOODBYE LENIN”

“Goodbye Lenin” which highlights the social and economical gap which existed between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, has been realized by the German director, W. Becker.
This movie brings us at the Kerners, a family from Eastern Berlin, belonging to the GDR. When her husband has escaped to the FRG, Christiane got involved in the communist choral. In October 1989, Christiane was invited to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the GDR. On her way, she was stopped by a demonstration against the communism and Berlin Wall which has separated many families. As you can imagine, repression was merciless. When she has seen the policemen arresting her son –Alex- with such violence, she fainted and went into deep coma. Few weeks later, the 9 of November 1989, the “Wall of shame” collapsed. The sudden introduction of the western life, in East Berlin, has nearly been a culture shock for those Berliners, who lived almost 30 years under a communist and totalitarian regimen, standing aloof from progress. In June 1990, whereas the city has completely changed, Alex’s mother woke up from her coma, she was that weak, that the doctor had advised Alex and his sister Arianne, to avoid any emotional shock to their mother. That advice had prompted them to keep their mother far from any news about the political and economical changes taking place. Alex is the one who has shown, throughout the movie, a real devotion towards his mother. In fact, he will reorganize their home as it was before the fall of the wall, he managed to find the old brands existing under the soviet influence, and he went that far that he asked the people close to his mother to go back to wear their old communist clothes. With his friend Denis, from the FRG, he created a fake Eastern Berlin’s TV program aiming to inform gradually Christiane about the changes that happened in the