what a wonderful movie i just netflixed. when we first got back from new zealand, one day we were at a video rental store and the cover to "good bye lenin" caught my eye. i didn't pick it up and read about it. i just tried to remember the title so i could add it to my netflix queue. it's finally made it's way to the front and i still didn't quite remember what the film is about by the description, just that i want to see it. such a blind choice was a good choice. in short, imagine being in a coma when the berlin wall fell and not knowing anything about the turnaround. that's what one character experiences in the film. the character is an east german who loves the system and believes in it so much, her son goes to great lengths to keep the truth from her. that's all you need to know.

the wall wasn't up very long. the ddr only existed for 40 (almost 41) years. but still, i find it so impacting. the cold war is still very interesting to me. i was sad when i saw the live broadcasts of the fall of the berlin wall because i never visited there and went to checkpoint charlie, etc. mostly i was sad that an era was over. a couple years after that, we had exchange students from germany and we got to learn from them a little of the difficulty of (re)unification. there is still difficulty but...

if you want to know more about the film, here's why i like it. it had funny moments, heart, drama, coming of age, a little romance, just a good combination. the movie was filmed on location and the special effects used to turn back the clock are convincing and subtle enough that everything is believable. there are mistakes of course but unless you are highly critical, these can be easily overlooked. there is a bigger 'mistake' one might call it, others might say it is because a scene was cut out that forshadows (a film) so it doesn't make sense. it involves a t-shirt a character is wearing that is from the 1990s, so it threw me off at first as to how long the character was in a coma. turns out, the filmmakers were trying to be a little too obvious in reference to another scene. i think they didn't need the t-shirt at all. anyway...

the film was made by both east and west germans. they worked together to get things right. some offered what they knew from first-hand or from their family. it seems the film did quite well in germany and has also sparked conversations between the east and west again, "is that how life was like?" and so forth. watching the family go western in so short a time, i also thought, "was assimilating really that quick?" only slightly did i wonder about similar times in other countries' histories. mostly i wondered about germany and was caught up with the film itself. in fact, i even watched the crew commentary in german. as i don't speak german, i was grateful the commentary was subtitled. the commentary gives greater insight as to east vs. west. the actors talk about how they lived or comments others have said to them. you also learn east germany depiction mistakes not listed in imdb. it's funny how one of the commentators mentions that the mistakes are even listed in english in imdb. i guess being in imdb is a big deal in the film community, no matter where in the world.