Good Bye, Lenin!
Good Bye, Lenin!
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Good Bye, Lenin!

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Good Bye, Lenin!

Good Bye, Lenin! is a 2003 German tragicomedy film, directed by Wolfgang Becker. The cast includes Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, and Maria Simon. The story follows a family in East Germany; the mother is dedicated to the socialist cause and falls into a coma in October 1989, shortly before the Peaceful Revolution in November. When she awakens eight months later in June 1990, her son attempts to protect her from a fatal shock by concealing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism in East Germany.

Most scenes were shot at the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin and around Plattenbau buildings near Alexanderplatz. Good Bye, Lenin! received numerous honours, including 2003's European Film Award for Best Film and German Film Award for Best Fiction Film.

The film is set in East Berlin, in the period from October 1989 to a few days after German reunification in October 1990.

Alex Kerner lives with his mother Christiane, his sister Ariane, and Ariane’s infant daughter Paula. Alex's father purportedly abandoned the family for a mistress in the West in 1978. His mother joined the Socialist Unity Party and devoted her time to advocating for citizens. Alex is disillusioned by the celebration of East Germany's 40th anniversary and participates in an anti-government demonstration. There he meets a girl, but they are separated by the Volkspolizei before they can introduce themselves.

Christiane, seeing Alex being arrested and beaten, suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma because nobody initially comes to her aid. Visiting his mother in the hospital, Alex finds that her nurse, Lara, is the girl from the demonstration. She (an exchange student from the Soviet Union) and Alex begin dating shortly afterward.

Erich Honecker resigns, Egon Krenz takes over, the borders are opened, the Berlin Wall falls, East Germany holds free elections, and capitalism comes to East Berlin. Alex begins working for a West German firm selling and installing satellite dishes. He befriends a Western colleague, aspiring filmmaker Denis Domaschke. Ariane drops out of university, where she studied economics, and begins working at Burger King, dating her manager (Rainer, who moves into their apartment).

After eight months, Christiane awakens from her coma. Her doctor warns her family that she is still weak and any shock might cause another, possibly fatal, heart attack. Alex resolves to conceal the profound societal changes from her and maintain the illusion that the German Democratic Republic is just as it was before her coma. He retrieves their old East German furniture, makes everyone in the flat dress in old, East German clothes, and repackages new Western food in old East German jars. The deception becomes increasingly complicated as Christiane witnesses strange occurrences, such as a gigantic Coca-Cola banner on an adjacent building. Denis and Alex create fake news broadcasts in the style of old East German news tapes to explain these odd events. Alex and Ariane fail to find where Christiane keeps her life savings (in East German marks) in time to exchange them for West German marks before the deadline.

Christiane gets stronger and one day wanders outside while Alex is asleep. She sees her neighbours' old East German furniture stacked in the street, new West German cars for sale, advertisements for Western corporations, and a statue of Lenin being flown away by helicopter. Alex and Ariane take her back home and Alex shows her a fake newscast explaining East Germany is now accepting refugees from the West following an economic crisis there. Ariane tells Alex she is pregnant with Rainer's baby; it will be half East German and half West German, a symbol of the new Germany.

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