Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Chulpan Khamatova
Berlin, 1989. Alex (Daniel Brühl) and his sister Ariane (Maria Simon) live in East Germany with their mother Christiane (Katrin Sass), who is a staunch Socialist.
When Alex’s mother witnesses his arrest on a protest march, she suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma for eight months, just enough time for the Berlin Wall to come tumbling down, along with all of East Germany’s ideals.
Eight months later, Christiane wakes up and things have changed. The doctors warn Alex that any shock could bring on a fatal heart attack. He realises he must convince his mother that her beloved Communism has not been overthrown but is in fact triumphing over Capitalism.
Alex then sets out to recreate every detail of the old East inside the four walls of their tiny council flat, and what begins as a little white lie soon turns into a deception of comical proportions…
This is a remarkable film that makes you laugh and leaves you thinking.
The Observer