German literature has always had a religious textual heaviness, and cinema is no exception. This movie marked as comedy didn't make me feel at ease, maybe comedy as we understand it is just a kind of drama. The name of the film reminds people of politics, of revolution, but that's not what the director wants to tell us.
Alix is a vigorous young man with the paranoia and arrogance unique to his age. He had long since lost hope in his lifeless country. The foundations of belief on which the country rested are long gone. On the eve of the impending collapse of the entire state apparatus, Alix, like all the young people of this country, took to the streets to fight for what they called freedom and liberation. Alix doesn't know what politics is. To him, the beautiful female nurses he stumbled across at the parade seemed more attractive than sports. The march was suppressed by the authorities. While being arrested by the police, Alix accidentally discovered that his mother had inadvertently barged in. The bloody scene caused the mother to collapse on the street with a sudden myocardial infarction, and this coma lasted for eight months.
When my mother opened her eyes again, the outside world had undergone tremendous changes. The Berlin Wall had fallen, national borders had disappeared, the people were free, and the GDR was on the verge of extinction. what to do? A conundrum confronts Alix. In Alix's eyes, her mother has always been a staunch member of the Communist Party. Since her father defected to the West when she was a child, her mother married herself to the party and actively participated in social welfare undertakings. The seriously ill mother's nerves are already fragile, and she can't let her know that her motherland is about to perish.
For this reason, Alix chose to hide it. In order not to let the bedridden mother notice the upheaval outside the window, Alix goes to great lengths. He rearranged his mother's room, removing all fashion from the West. He hired two former young pioneers to sing those forgotten songs for his mother. He even rummaged through the trash for bottles and jars that still had East German logos on them. In order to show that they have broken with the past, people always like to rudely erase everything from the past, as if they never happened.
Alix respects his mother's faith because he feels that to his mother, faith is like her life. Whether he shares this belief or not, out of love for his mother, he can pretend. Doesn't our country have a similar history? But does our generation have a sense of respect for the beliefs of our fathers? In other words, now is an era of national entertainment, and there is no need for nonsense love and belief. Hype and spoof are our best way of life.
The most absurd part of the movie is the TV news Alix's friends make for his mother. To convince her mother that the country is still functioning, Alix asks friends to create "brand new" news. East Germany was left in his mother's small ward through a TV, so there were many extremely funny and absurd scenes. Coca-Cola turned out to be the invention of socialism. The reason for the noise outside the window turned out to be the restoration of the Nazis in West Germany, and the West Germans poured into East Germany. In short, the East Germany described by Alix for his mother has become what everyone once idealized.
Humor is a lighthearted profound. As an East German, the director will somewhat miss the way he used to live. In the movie, the scene where the huge statue of Lenin gradually disappears in the sunset will make everyone feel melancholy. Communism itself is not wrong. The equality and liberation of all people will always be the best ideal of mankind. So many brave people have paid for it. What confuses the director is only the revolutionary approach to social change. The upheaval in East Germany did not bring happiness to ordinary families. There is just anxiety, impatience and madness—an extreme opposite to the past. And only the narrow ward where the mother is far away from the hustle and bustle is a small oasis where Alix can sleep peacefully.
Revolutions will not bring the happiness that humanity desires. At the end of the film, there is the most dramatic turning point. In fact, the mother has long been disappointed with her country. Her husband did not flee to the West for other women, as she said. The reason why she wants to marry the party is entirely because she doesn't want her two children to grow up under discrimination. Both generations lied out of love. When the movie comes to this point, moving has become the only element that touches people's hearts. This reminds me of the "Life is Beautiful" that once made me cry.
Another key word in movies is growth. Isn't Alix's process of compiling lies a process of self-growth? He eventually grew from a reckless and ignorant boy to a man who knew how to love. The last time the news was faked, he made the space hero as a child the new leader of the country. At this time, his mother actually knew the truth. With a serene smile on her face, she looked at her son's slightly wider back.
Lies make the love of these two generations.
In the vast universe, life on earth always seems so small. What is the goal of mankind, how much has been achieved, and how much has not been achieved, these will not have a single answer. However, it will not be the so-called revolutions and movements that make human beings survive, but the mutual care and love between people.
And that's what the movie is trying to tell us.
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