[lbo-talk] Re: Good Bye, Lenin! dominates German film festival

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>The Economic Times
>Sunday, June 8, 2003
>Good Bye, Lenin! dominates German film festival
>ERIK KIRSCHBAUM
>REUTERS
>
>BERLIN: An international box office blockbuster "Good Bye, Lenin!" 
>has scooped up seven German "Lola" awards at the world's most 
>lucrative film competition, taking the German Film Prize contest by 
>storm.
>
>The bittersweet German comedy about a son's undying love for his 
>ailing mother won top awards at Germany's equivalent of the Oscars 
>for best film, best director, best actor and four other gold prizes 
>in the $3.4 million (2 million pounds) contest.
<snip>
>"Good Bye, Lenin!," acquired by distributors in more than 30 
>countries since winning the Berlin Film Festival's prize as "Best 
>European Film" in February, has topped Germany's box office this 
>year with $41 million and 5.7 million viewers.
>
>"I never would have dreamt this film would touch a nerve the way it 
>has," director Wolfgang Becker told Reuters. "You don't have to know 
>a thing about German history to understand it. A son who loves his 
>mother -- it's a story you find everywhere."
<snip>
>Daniel Bruehl won the "Lola" for best actor for his portrayal of a 
>teen-age son who recreates a slice of Communist East Berlin six 
>months after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 to protect his ailing 
>mother.
>His mother, a devoted Communist, falls into a coma just before the 
>Wall fell and wakes up eight months later. Doctors warn the son that 
>the upheaval sweeping the formerly Communist country could send her 
>into shock and kill her.
>
>So he painstakingly recreates a small East German world in their 
>apartment, removing all signs of Western capitalism that had overrun 
>eastern Germany to keep her in the dark about the end of the Cold 
>War.

_Good Bye, Lenin!_ may come to a theater near you in the USA -- 
<http://www.indiewire.com/biz/biz_030609sony.html>.

_Good Bye, Lenin!_ Trailer, Etc.: <http://www.79qmddr.de/intro.php>.