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Good Bye, Lenin! is a gently humourous film that is an ironic love letter to East Germany. Wolfgang Becker directs the cast in a subtle way that balances the melodramatic with the comedic and he manages to explore what we’ll do for the one’s we love. It also gives a bit more perspective to German society and how the myth of progress isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Things changed quickly when the Berlin Wall fell and I hadn’t really thought about the challenges that would have been faced by the people who were losing their communist government. It’s not so much a love letter to East Germany, but the story of a man who will do anything he can for his mother, even remaking the world to fit her memories to ease her recovery from a coma. Everyone shapes the way we deal with our families to make things easier by not telling them everything. Where do we draw the line and who are we really trying to help, our loved ones or ourselves?
