Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) (nat)

Another book selection but at least this one didn't make me feel like I was on a boat in a hurricane. It's about a 20-ish guy, Alex, who has grown up in East Germany. On the eve of the wall falling, his mother (who was really active in Socialist Party) has a heart attack as she sees her son arrested for protesting the East German government. The mother falls into a coma for 8 months during which time the wall falls and East German goes from the mother's beloved socialist government to a capitalist one. While she's in a coma, Alex falls in love with the nurse (who he first met at the protest) and the world changes dramatically. His mother wakes and Alex has to keep her calm so as to not bring on another heart attack. So, genius that he is, he decides not to tell her that the wall has fallen and the world she knew is gone. So begins the charade. Everyone has to pretend Socialism is the thing to love while little things creep in--a Coke sign on a building outside her window--that's right Coke is the universal symbol of capitalism. There's also a family story behind everything. The mother told Alex and his sister that their father ran off with another woman when they were young. That gets twisted as the story progresses. It'a a fairly sweet story about familial love and idealism.