Movies
‘Good Bye, Lenin!’ and Yearning for a Better Future
‘Good Bye, Lenin!’ opens with a scene that juxtaposes the nostalgic images of Alex growing up and the changing nature of East Germany. Many believe that the 2003 German tragicomedy ‘Good Bye, Lenin!’ is an explicitly Ostalgic film. But as we will soon find out it is closer to Hauntology than Ostalgie, but then we will learn that it is not even hauntological but something else entirely. So what is ‘Good Bye, Lenin!’?
‘Good Bye, Lenin!’ is a 2003 German film directed by Wolfgang Becker. It follows the story of Alex in East Germany during the final years of the Soviet Union. Due to a series of events, his mother Christiane suffers a heart attack and enters into a coma for eight months. During her coma the Berlin Wall fell and East Germany opened its borders and markets to the west.
Once she wakes up, Alex is informed that any sudden shock to her mental state could place her at a risk of another heart attack, and this time she might not survive it. Alex then fabricates a false future (through different comedic methods) that maintains that the Berlin Wall did not fall. This is to avoid his mother finding out about it and having another heart attack, as she believed greatly in Socialism. She was a staunch socialist and contributed a lot to the Socialist party in East Germany.
