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Good Bye Lenin ! (Germany, 2003)

In German with English subtitles, 121 minutes, M-violence and offensive language

In October 1989, one month before the fall of the Berlin wall, Alex's mother, an East German activist for social progress and the improvement of everyday life, goes into a coma. Alex has a big problem on his hands when she wakes up eight months later. Her heart is so weak that the slightest shock could kill her. And what could be more shocking than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of capitalism in her beloved homeland? Determined to protect his mother, Alex transforms the family apartment into an oasis from the past, a miniature socialist museum where he dupes his mother into believing that nothing has changed. What begins as a white lie gets increasingly out of hand as Alex's mother, feeling better by the day, wants to watch TV and get out of bed…

This wonderfully touching and comic film tells the story of a devoted son who tries to move mountains and work miracles to protect his mother from the truth about what happened to the GDR…


Part of the Novemberkinder German Film Festival 2009. For more information visit www.goethe.de/germanfilmfestivalnz