MFDB

Storyline

Autumn 1989.The dissolution of the GDR is in full swing. Shortly before the fall of the wall, Mother Kerner suffers a heart attack, falls into a coma and sleeps through the triumph of capitalism.When she comes out of her coma in the summer of 1990, East Berlin has already changed considerably. Her son, Alex, who has been particularly close to his mother ever since his father took flight from the Republic ten years previously, is determined to protect his mother from any form of excitement at all costs.Worried that she might have another heart attack if she knew what has happened, he does not tell her that the wall has come down. Alex enacts for his bedridden mother in the confines of her bedroom the GDR world that once was. But what will he do when his pretence gets more difficult as his mother begins to make a rapid recovery? What’s going to happen when he can’t buy everyday GDR products anymore? Or what if she wants to watch the long since defunct GDR news programme “Aktuelle Kamera”? And what if she catches sight of her first Coca-Cola poster in the East? With the aid of a colleague from work named Denis who is an enthusiastic video filmmaker, Alex even manages to circumvent all of these problems. Things get really difficult, however, when his mother slips out onto the street unnoticed one day, only to discover a completely changed world. In a flash,Alex invents a whole new version of the historical events of the years 1989 and 1990...

Festivals & Academy awards and others

Berlin International Film Festival 2003
Competition
Blue Angel Award for Best European Film

European Film Awards (EFA) 2003
Best Film Award
Best Actor Award (Daniel Brühl)
Best screenwriter (Bernd Lichtenberg)