Celebrating German film – GOOD BYE LENIN! – with links to study guides

Goodbye Lenin

GOOD BYE LENIN! (15) 2002 GERMANY BECKER, WOLFGANG £19.99

One of the biggest German comedies of recent times.

It is 1989 and Alex (Daniel Bruhl) and his sister Ariane (Maria Simon) live in East Germany with their mother, Christiane (Katrin Sass). A staunch Socialist, Alex’s mother suffers a heart attack when she sees Alex being arrested on a protest march, and falls into a coma for eight months – in which time the Berlin Wall comes down. When Christiane wakes up, doctors warn Alex that any shock could bring on a fatal heart attack, so he decides to convince his mother that her beloved Communism has not been overthrown, but is in fact triumphing over Capitalism; and Alex sets about recreating every detail of the old East Berlin in their flat.

In German with English subtitles

GERMAN LANGUAGE FILMHEFT BY CRISTINA MOLES KAUPP

GERMAN LANGUAGE STUDY GUIDE BY HANNA OSTERMANN AND STEFFI BOOTHROYD

ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM NOTES

GOOD BYE, LENIN!: OSTALGIE UND IDENTITÄT IM WIEDER VEREINIGTEN DEUTSCHLAND BY SEÁN ALLAN

LEARNING RESOURCE PAGE

SCENE DESCRIPTION IN GERMAN

SHORT SECTION

TEACHING RESOURCES

TRANSCRIPT

DIDACTICAL SEQUENCE A

DIDACTICAL SEQUENCE B