The story of political change in a divided country told through the eyes of a young man and his recently comatose mother. Alexander (Daniel Bruhl) must hide the recent political shifts in his East Berlin town from his politically active mother(Katrin Sass), since her heart is too weak and can't take any excitement.
The lengths that Alex goes to prevent his mother from knowing the truth illustrates a struggle of covering up reality for the sake of continuing a life once lived. It seems this sin runs in the family since Alex's mother also has a secret of her own that has been covered up. The theme of keeping ignorance under control taps into the psyche of the consumerist, capitalistic, and communist decree that now runs rampant through Germany after the fall of the wall. With the spread of satellite dishes, knowledge of both cultures begins to seep through East Germany rather quickly. A good instance of this is the process Alex uses to sustain his lie by making videos about West German refugees entering communist East Germany in order to pursue different, anti-capitalist lives.
I love so much about this film, but what really grabbed me in the beginning was the score written by Yann Tiersen, a French musician, who also wrote music for Amelie. For what I thought would be a comedy, which it surely is, I was met with a sorrowful mood. It was delicate but the imagery of communist Germany was very passionate and powerful, drenched in red. This combination showed me a portrait of a mother who's life and vigor were cast in red like that of the Soviet flag, and the music showed me just how dire her health was, and how fragile her body had become. This is the perfect setup for what the film would explain in the coming chapters.
Sounds like a great film. I am definitely going to check it out.
ReplyDelete