Good Bye Lenin!

Written and directed by Wolfgang Becker.

Dialogue

Dr. Wagner: You must protect her from any kind of excitement. And I do mean any kind, Mr. Kerner.

Alexander Kerner: Any kind of excitement.

Dr. Wagner: It would be life-threatening.

Alexander Kerner: And this here? [Shows the doctor a newspaper reading "Good Luck, Germany. Yes to Reunification"]

Alexander Kerner: Wouldn't you call this exciting?

Alexander Kerner: All this stuff has to go. Are the old curtains in the cellar?

Ariane Kerner: You can't be serious.

Ariane Kerner: You were in a coma. Eight months ago.

Christiane Kerner: Eight months? What happened?

Ariane Kerner: Yeah, it was...

Alexander Kerner: It was in October, in the supermarket. There was this enormous queue and it was really hot and you just passed out.

Christiane Kerner: In October?

Alexander Kerner: It was an unusually hot October day.

Denis: Eighth floor?

Alexander Kerner: Yup.

Denis: Elevator?

Alexander Kerner: Broken.

Denis: Shit.

Alexander Kerner: You can say that again.

Sigmund Jähn: Where to?

Alexander Kerner: Wannsee

Sigmund Jähn: I know what you think. Everyone does. But I'm not him.

Denis: Denis [handing Alex a video cassette]

Denis': It's my best production ever. A pity your Mom will be the only audience...

Alex' father: Sorry, do we know each other?

Alex': Yes we know each other.

Alex' father: Yeah, I can't quite place you, help me out?

Alex' stepsister: His name is Alexander...

[last lines; voiceover]

Alexander Kerner: My mother outlived the GDR by three days. I believe it was a good thing she never learned the truth. She died happy. She wanted us to scatter her ashes to the winds. That's prohibited in Germany, both East and West. But we didn't care.

Alexander Kerner': She's up there somewhere now. Maybe looking down at us. Maybe she sees us as tiny specks on the Earth's surface, just like Sigmund Jähn did back then. The country my mother left behind was a country she believed in; a country we kept alive till her last breath; a country that never existed in that form; a country that, in my memory, I will always associate with my mother.

Cast

• Daniel Brühl - Alexander Kerner
• Katrin Saß - Christiane Kerner
• Chulpan Khamatova - Lara
• Maria Simon - Ariane Kerner
• Florian Lukas - Denis