Looking Out To Sea

We saw Good Bye Lenin! yesterday, the second film in the Filmhouse’s little series of German films. This one was also about pre-unification Germany, but it was a comedy. So not at all like The Lives of Others.

It’s about a family whose father escapes to the West. The mother throws herself into the communist society and becomes a recognised idealist and champion for improving society. But she falls into a coma and sleeps through the fall of the Wall, and all the other changes that came along with it. When she wakes up the doctors advise that she not be made to suffer any excitement… so the grown-up children decide to hide her at home and pretend that the German Democratic Republic is the same as always.

This gives great scope for embarrassing social situations, awkward moments as you think the cat will be let out of the bag, and so on. It was a very funny film and a neat counterpoint to the misery and paranoia of The Lives of Others. Really recommended.