How do you tell someone that the world has ended and a new one has started? How do you tell them that the life they have known for 40 years and everything that they have worked hard for have suddenly vanished? More importantly, how can you break this news to them when you yourself have not yet come to terms with it?

These questions are what is at the center of the film Good Bye, Lenin!, directed by Wolfgang Becker. This tragicomedy follows Alex, a young resident of East Berlin, during the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, as he tries to hide the collapse of communism from his sick mother. This is a film that thrives in the juxtaposition of opposing emotions. The triumph of reunification and liberation is portrayed alongside the melancholy and grief of the loss of a homeland. The script is ripe with idiosyncrasies from East German life that give it a tint of nostalgia while also emphasizing the oppressive nature of the regime. The craving of Spreewald pickles and Mocca Fix Gold is placed next to the violent repression of peaceful protesters by the Stasi. As well as this, the entry of East Germany into the Western world carries its own contradictions. This is a world where families can reunite, where freedom of speech and freedom of choice are fundamental rights. A world where economic theory students can work at Burger King and cosmonauts can become taxi drivers.

It is hard to pinpoint if this film suffers from a strong case of Ostalgie, or if it is an open welcome of the Western world that had been desired for so long in East Germany. What is certain is that Good Bye, Lenin!, as the title suggests, is a farewell. It is a sendoff to a country that was the homeland for a people for a generation. A better sendoff than the slow fizzling out of existence that it got in real life.