Good Bye Lenin

This film takes place in the city of Berlin, Germany, during the fall of the Berlin Wall. The family that it follows lives on the eastern side of Berlin which is controlled by communist Russia. The story follows a small family who are trying to keep their bed ridden mother from getting anymore shocking news because it might cause her some serious heart problems. They do everything in their power to hide the fall of the Berlin wall and the communist control of their city.

The movie was shot in parts of Berlin which show a great deal of box like cheaply built housing. All of the clothes and furniture and cars look as though they came from the 1960’s yet it was in fact 1989. The city looked gloomy and forbidding, like you didn’t want to go outside and no one was having fun anywhere. They also showed how the people were caged in the city and not allowed to leave for fear of defection. The Russians controlled everything that the people in their hostage city could do. They could not even go on walks after dark and had to wait as much as 7 years to buy a car.

Capitalist countries invite free trade and free enterprise where as the communist control of Berlin fought for equality through everyone getting the same amount. There was a dramatic change when capitalism was introduced into Berlin. Everyone rid themselves of old crappy furniture and clothes and got stuff more up to date. People began watching TV from all over the world and corporations like McDonalds and Coca-Cola moved in. Totalitarianism in the movie was show by the complete and unforgiving control of the people of Berlin, by the Russians. The Berlin wall was the key to this control and imprisonment of the citizens of the city. Ostalgia refers to the nostalgia for aspects of regular daily life and culture in the former GDR, which disappeared after the reunification of Berlin. Many of the people that conformed to the socialist way of life for so long in East Berlin felt this nostalgia after the capitalist society quickly erased all of the GDR brands when the wall came down.