Good Bye Lenin!
Overview
Cinema of Germany
Cinema in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema has made major technical and artistic contributions to film.Unlike any other national cinemas, which developed in the context of relatively continuous and stable political systems, Germany witnesses major changes to its...
tragicomedy
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, released internationally in 2003. Directed by Wolfgang Becker
Wolfgang Becker
Wolfgang Becker is a German film director and writer. He is best known to the international audience for his work Good Bye Lenin! .-Biography:...
, the cast includes Daniel Brühl
Daniel Brühl
Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo is a Spanish/German actor. He is best known as Daniel Brühl.-Personal life:Brühl was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. His father was the late German stage director Hanno Brühl and his mother was a Spanish professor. He also has a brother and a sister...
, Katrin Saß
Katrin Saß
Katrin Saß is a German actress, best known internationally for playing Christiane Kerner in the 2003 tragicomedy film Good Bye, Lenin! Before German reunification, she was well known film and stage actress in the German Democratic Republic She won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 32nd Berlin...
, Chulpan Khamatova
Chulpan Khamatova
Chulpan Nailevna Khamatova is a Russian film, theater and TV actress of Tatar origin. Her name, Chulpan, means "morning star" in Tatar.- Background :...
, and Maria Simon
Maria Simon
Maria Simon is a German actress.- Family and background :Simon is the sister of the actress Susanna Simon. She was born and brought up in the former East Germany but moved to New York in 1990 to live with her father, a computer expert with the UN, and sister Dalena Simon...
. Most of the scenes were shot at the Karl-Marx-Allee
Karl-Marx-Allee
The Karl-Marx-Allee is a monumental socialist boulevard built by the GDR between 1952 and 1960 in Berlin Friedrichshain and Mitte. Today the boulevard is named after Karl Marx....
in Berlin and around Plattenbau
Plattenbau
Plattenbau is the German word for a building whose structure is constructed of large, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is a compound of Platte and Bau...
ten near Alexanderplatz
Alexanderplatz
Alexanderplatz is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin, near the Fernsehturm. Berliners often call it simply Alex, referring to a larger neighborhood stretching from Mollstraße in the northeast to Spandauer Straße and the City Hall in the southwest.-Early...
.
In a prologue, Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl
Daniel Brühl
Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo is a Spanish/German actor. He is best known as Daniel Brühl.-Personal life:Brühl was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. His father was the late German stage director Hanno Brühl and his mother was a Spanish professor. He also has a brother and a sister...
) recalls as a child in 1978 how proud he was along with his countrymen when the first German to enter space, Sigmund Jähn
Sigmund Jähn
Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn is a German pilot who became the first German to fly in space as part of the Soviet Union's Interkosmos program.-Biography:Jähn was born in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz, in the Vogtland district of Saxony, Germany...
, came from East Germany (the GDR).
The rest of the film is set in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
, spanning from October 1989 to just after German unification a year later.