This film is gentle, touching and warmly humorous.
It centers around a young man and his family living in East Germany.
The man's mother, a true believer in socialism, falls into a coma soon before the Berlin Wall falls and the country runs at breakneck speed toward unification.
Her coma lasts six months.
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With strict orders to not allow her to become excited, Alex (the young man) recreates everything in their apartment the way it was when his mother became comatose.
Alex even goes as far as taping fake news programs created by him and a friend showing a thriving socialist East Germany.
Soon neighbors and friends are drawn into Alex's scheme and the lie takes on a life of its own.
There is also much humor in "Good Bye, Lenin!" that pokes fun at the changes in East Germany after the wall fell.
For example, Alex's mother sees a Coca-Cola sign being hung on the wall of a building outside her window. Alex has to think quick and decides to "show" his mother that Coke is actually an East German creation.
This is a story about a young man's love for his mother shared with his sister and many friends.
It's also a reminder of how things were right before and after the fall of the wall.
Germans on both sides took trips to see the other side. It was a time to be young and full of hope and promise.
The truly difficult task of reunification hadn't been felt yet and Germans were at the apogee of optimism about the new order (or chaos).
"Good Bye, Lenin!" is available on DVD.
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