We meet the family in Alex's childhood, as his father disappears from the family life into West Germany. After losing her husband, Alex's mother, Christiane, devotes her entire life to socialism, becoming active in community life and "marrying the party." As protests begin to spring up in 1989, however, Christiane witnesses Alex participating in one, and suffers a heart attack. She then lapses into a coma for eight months, the Wall comes down, and the worldview she devoted herself to collapses with it. When she wakes up, the doctor says another shock could kill her, so Alex decides he and his sister should bring her home and create the past in the apartment. This starts out as a fairly simple matter of redecorating, but becomes more and more complicated as the world continues to change outside the apartment. Eventually, in his love for his mother, Alex goes so far as to help make fake news reports to explain away phenomena such as a Coca Cola advertisement being hung on a nearby building or the presence of West Germans in their neighborhood.
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| The movie's fake newscasts are some of the most interesting and inventive parts of the movie, as Alex begins to create an alternate history of his country, with the help of a film-savvy friend. |
While Christiane is kept in the dark, the viewer is treated to a movie about a country and its people in transition - some are overjoyed and excited, others, mainly the older people, are worried or angry about unemployment and the loss of old routines. Here are, in fact, two links to fairly recent articles about dissatisfied East German citizens - one is an opinion piece in the Guardian, the other a feature in Der Spiegel: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/1989-berlin-wall http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/homesick-for-a-dictatorship-majority-of-eastern-germans-feel-life-better-under-communism-a-634122.html
I had a very limited knowledge of East Germany, or in German, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, before watching this film, but the movie made me curious to learn more. It's amazing to think that such a huge transition happened within my lifetime, and within the lifetimes of Germans who are the same age as me. Since I currently live in a divided country, it's of particular interest, though the gulf between North and South Korea is certainly much wider than that between the two Germanys.
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| Christiane is perplexed as West Germans move into her apartment complex. |
I highly recommend this film both as an introduction to this interesting time in German history and as a human drama. The acting is good, the story inventive and creative. It is the kind of movie that makes you think about what you would do in a similar situation and puts you in the shoes of someone from a different culture and time. It's also a great family film, as long as you don't mind some brief, non-sexual, male nudity.
The film made me curious to visit some sites in Germany which might help me learn more about this historical period. Here are some places I might try:
http://www.ddr-museum.de/en (A museum in Berlin dedicated to the history of the DDR)
http://www.museenfuergeschichte.de/de/7/Zeitgeschichtliches-Forum-Leipzig.html?mid=20 (another museum on the DDR, located in the former East Germany. You'll have to translate this page if you don't read German!)
http://coldwarsites.net/country/germany (A page which links to a variety of sites within Germany)
Finally, here are some photos taken in the last days of the DDR and an interview with the photographer:
http://www.dw.de/photographer-captures-colors-of-gdr-life/a-16864700
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