Communist Party member Christiane (Kathrin Sass) has a heart attack near the Berlin Wall as it collapses in 1989. She is in a coma for six months, not knowing what has happened to Berlin or Communism. When she wakes, the doctor tells her son, Alex (Daniel Brühl), and daughter, Ariane (Maria Simon), that if their mom has any surprises or shocks she will have another heart attack and die.
Meanwhile, the world has changed. The children have thrown out all the old furnishings and upgraded the apartment. But Alex cannot bear that his mother might die of a shock, so he goes scrounging for the cast off furniture and turns the apartment back to the way it was. He and a friend create a daily news program on video so Christiane will think that the Eastern bloc life and politics are the same.
In one of the funniest scenes Alex hires former members of the Communist Youth to dress in their old uniforms and come and sing songs for his mother. But the façade starts to crumble when Christiane sees a helicopter carrying a statue of Lenin and then a banner for Coca Cola hanging from a large building.
This film has become one of Germany’s most commercially successful of its time. Awards include a Blue Angel at the Berlin Film Festival in 2003.
Similar to In America, this film has heart, humor and humanity.
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