When Goodbye Lenin! Shown in Abuja

Set in October 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl) lived with his mother, Christiane (Kathrin Sass), and sister, Ariane (Maria Simon). But when the mother, a loyal party member, sees Alex participating in an anti-communist rally, she suffers a heart attack and goes into a coma and misses […]

Set in October 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl) lived with his mother, Christiane (Kathrin Sass), and sister, Ariane (Maria Simon). But when the mother, a loyal party member, sees Alex participating in an anti-communist rally, she suffers a heart attack and goes into a coma and misses the fall of the Berlin Wall and other events around the revolution.
She awakes in summer 1990; doctors sternly warn that any jarring event could make her have a heart attack which she would not survive. This means the family had to go to great lengths to pretend communism still reigns in Berlin.
According to cultural attaché of the Mission, Dr. Burkard Weth, the movie was shown “because this film was the best German film in 2003. It illustrates the process of German unification in a very good way.”
The embassy organises a film festival every year which has so far always been a unique event, Weth said adding that: “We expect to show Nigerians real life in Germany. People should get an authentic impression about German social and political life.”
With an interest basically in showing German movies which illustrate German life, he also stated that: “When more people are expected to come we will do this again. We think that Nigerians in Abuja and elsewhere should get a chance to see German movies.