It's a funny coincidence that the first movie I am watching is Goodbye Lenin!. I mean, I am German, the movie is German, I am born in the GDR, the movie deals with the GDR (for the ones that don't know what the heck I am talking about, call it East Germany). I haven't seen this one in quite some time now and although I remembered it as being pretty good, I was surprised how drawn in I was, this movie was great.
The film is about Alex, a boy growing up with his mom and sister in the GDR. When his mom has a heart attack and is in a coma unfortunately the wall goes down and a whole country is more or less disappearing. When she wakes up and is not allowed to be exposed to any sort of trouble Alex is figuring out ways to trick her into believing that the GDR still exists.
Actually this sounds like the pitch to a comedy and there are definitely moments in the movie where you will laugh out loud. But it's also way more than that. The film has a very strong emotional anchor in lead Daniel Brühl and deals with realistic family issues and has scene stealing supporting characters.
Overall this movie was brilliant and I recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an issue with reading subtitles (come on, it wasn't too hard in Dances With Wolves or Inglourious Basterds).
