REVIEW: DVD Release: Goodbye Lenin!

Film: Goodbye Lenin!
Release date: 3rd September 2007
Certificate: 15
Running time: 121 mins
Director: Wolfgang Becker
Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon, Florian Lukas
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Studio: Pathe!
Format: DVD
Country: Germany

In 1989, Germany was still divided by a great socialist wall. By the end of that year, the wall would fall, Germany would be united and East Berliners would see the flood of capitalism: new money, new styles, new ideas and new lives. Wolfgang Becker’s best known film creates the most personal account of the fall of the Berlin wall to date. Charming, comic and evocative, it is the tale not of the great political change, but of the people and the lengths to which a young man will go to for the love of his mother.

In 1979, the first Germans went into space, the same year Christiane’s husband and Alex’s father fled East Berlin for the West, for a new life and new woman. While Alex grows up dreaming of being a cosmonaut, dedicated socialist Christiane puts her love and relentless faith in her homeland into the good of the people, the country and the cause. While either side of the fence on socialism, Christiane and Alex share family love and dedication. But when they are either side of a police barricade, Christiane’s heart gives way at the sight of her son being hauled off by police at a protest against the Berlin wall.

After her heart attack, Christiane is left in a coma for a very important eight months in Alex and his sister’s life. Alex talks to her daily while she sleeps through a rapidly changing world: the fall of the Berlin wall, with the ensuing capitalism and seemingly endless possibilities for the future; amid his growing infatuation with the nurse and the blooming of their relationship; his sister dropping out of college for a fast food job and a bohemian lifestyle; and the loss of his job as so many East Berlin companies fold under the newly provided services of the West. Then Christiane wakes, still so fragile that doctors warn that she may not live long, her heart unable to take the strain of any kind of “excitement.”

So begins Alex’s task of hiding the inundation of the West that now surrounds them. From having everyone wear old fashion clothes to searching the city for an old Eastern brand of pickles his mother wants, Alex builds a world of lies around Christiane to protect her. Unaware of the changes, her faith in the socialist world is unrelenting, and while hiding the truth from her becomes more and more difficult, Alex cannot bring himself to accept that she will at some point find out what happened to the society she so loved. Wilder explanations for the appearance of coca-cola adverts and the sounds of western TV next door lead Alex and Christiane deeper into a fairytale world until there is just too much to hide. Alex is forced to find a way to gently reveal the new world to his mother, while Christiane too realises that secrets of her own, kept for many years to protect her children, must finally give way to the truth…


The film starts out fantastically, with a sincere tone of warm, family nostalgia through a home video of a father and this children playing. Becker very successfully mixes this feeling with that of comedy and drama to create a wonderful emotional experience, from laughing at scenes of a drunken old professor trying to remember his lines to holding back tears as Christiane reveals the secret and her deep regrets about their father’s leaving. The film seems to lose its way for a few scenes in the middle, where pacing becomes an issue and some scenes feel drawn out or repetitive, but the tone and emotion sees you through to the end keeping you from turning away.

Alex is what holds the film together, portrayed with such talented subtlety by Daniel Brühl that it is no surprise he has gone on to work with great directors, in Hollywood and beyond. From the very beginning, it is clear Alex adores his mother, but it is still shocking to see that he is willing to do so much throughout the film, even seeking out a father he believed had abandoned him to give his mother peace before she dies. The progression of character throughout is well written, each bigger step he takes into the lie showing more dedication and belief in his cause that echoes his mother’s passion. He is clearly less embracing of the capitalist changes as his sister, the Burger King employee and consumer of Western goods, and there are times when Alex finds himself appreciating the old life, leaving you wondering if he is trying to keep it the same for his mother only, or trying also to preserve his life of the past. Inevitably, when Alex crafts a new ending to the German Democratic Republic for his mother, one of honour and pride, it allows him to give his mother and his motherland the send off he feels it deserved.

It is almost ironic that while it spends much of its time preserving a socialist life, the film style is very westernised as Becker, clearly passionate about film, references many great directors and Hollywood films. However, at times, the film feels long and monotonous. The scenes with the father at the end are overly drawn out, and arguably add very little to the film since Alex has already proved his devotion to his mother many times over. Certain jokes are overused and become repetitive, perhaps because Becker feared it would be too heavily sentimental drama, but it is this sentimentality that keeps bringing you back into its strong, relentless heart.


For a film about such a culture specific event, it has succeeded in touching audiences around the world. Certain in-jokes may be beyond wider western audiences but the themes at its heart are universal and carry across any culture or language borders. Countless films mark history’s greatest moments, but few focus the account on such a personal experience. CM

REVIEW: DVD Release: City Of War: The Story Of John Rabe

Film: City Of War: The Story Of John Rabe
Release date: 3rd May 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 120 mins
Director: Florian Gallenberger
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Daniel Bruhl, Ulrich Tukur
Genre: War/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Germany/France/China

Florian Gallenberger's film follows the actions of a conscientious Nazi Party member who uses his political pull to provide shelter to members of a race being subjected to the brutalities of genocide. No, this is not the story of Oskar Schindler but that of John Rabe - the German businessman who used his Nazi influence to help provide a sanctuary for the civilians of Nanking throughout Japan's invasion of China.

John Rabe (Ulrich Tukur), a German businessman and member of Hitler's Nazi Party, is caught in a moral conflict when the Chinese employees of the Nanking-based factory he runs are targeted and killed in Japan's ruthless and barbaric invasion of China.

Unable to stand for the ill treatment inflicted by the Japanese troops, Rabe helps in the establishment of a Safety Zone designated and maintained by his fellow business colleagues, as well as missionary workers. It is here that Rabe fights to provide security for the Chinese civilians against the marauding invaders, while battling ill health and trying to remain loyal to the political party he so blindly believes in...


It is no great surprise that much of City Of War: The Story Of John Rabe evokes memories of Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning Schindler's List, so similar are the stories of heroism perpetrated by both Rabe and his fellow businessman, Oskar Schindler. It is only unfortunate for director Gallenberger that the film, like the legacy of the man on whom it is based, will more than likely be left dwelling in the shadow of its more high-profile contemporary.

While being technically very good, and with some strong performances, the film simply remains too reliant on the opportunistic implementation of tried-and-tested, kitschy Hollywood gimmicks and sequences which often are not only likely fabrications imbedded into the case's reality - for instance, in no records is a wife of Rabe acknowledged to be of significance to his story in Nanking - but are also almost parasitical to the tale's main point of importance: the treatment suffered by the Chinese at the hands of the invading Japanese soldiers.

While Schindler's List is hardly going to be the complete and utterly faithful reconstruction of Schindler's story – and, of course, there is something to be said for creative writing instructor Robert McKee's claim that film is simply a metaphor for real life - the film never succumbs to allowing trifling subplots to dilute the more emotive storyline. Though there are periods where Schindler spends time self-reflecting, his emotional processes are influenced always by the trials endured by the Jews, his opinion of them and the way that he can make a difference for their benefit. Rabe, although conscious of the Chinese, never quite seems fully devoted when he has more direct, personal concerns, such as a drama with his fictitious wife and a barely consequential medical condition to contend with.

Gallenberger never goes so far as to develop any Chinese characters worthy of making a significant emotional contribution to the film, and it is this neglect that goes a distance to undermining the whole affair. The only Chinese character explored is that of Jingchu Zhang, who plays a schoolgirl serving as little more than a propagator of nuisance and a romantic interest for one of the Safety Zone committee members in an aimless subplot that further makes incidental the slaughter of the thousands which are portrayed throughout as little more than needy, huddled cattle awaiting their cull. Her contribution does nothing to sate the film's need for an emotional representative on behalf of the Chinese, whose pain far outweighs that of their eventual saviours.

Instead, this is a study of how the Nanking massacre affects the Western characters, with subplots engineered to bind and heighten the characters' emotional stakes. And as a film that cares more to study the Westerners than study the mindset of the real victims, it at least brings out of its main actors a couple of compelling performances, with lead Ulrich Tukur (The White Ribbon) first in line for commendation for his effective portrayal of Rabe. Tukur paints him as a sensitive gentleman in possession of a solid moralistic core, but hindered by a crippling naivety that sustains, for the most part, his poignant faith in the corrupt Nazi regime.

The character of Steve Buscemi - one of the chief hopes for the film's acknowledgement by English-speaking audiences - is capable enough but is restricted to spending his time saying how awful things are where more effective imagery could have done the job. The other supporting actors are, for the most part, par.

The soundtrack is stirringly powerful throughout, while the cinematography, complemented by archive footage from the killings, does a good job of painting a landscape so wracked with pain that you wish sometimes it was explored in more depth. At one point, Rabe peeks through a hole in a fence to get an obscured glimpse of the decapitation of one of his workers. A film more interested in the Chinese perspective - while remaining sensitive enough not to allow it to develop into a voyeuristic gore fest - might have dared to show it more explicitly and allowed the gravity of such individual atrocities to be of at least equal emotional importance as the fanciful, distracting story strands involving the main characters.

The neglect of the film to embrace the full emotional, psychological and graphic horror of "The Rape of Nanking", among one or two other qualms, leaves it a disappointingly forgettable depiction of one of the most important and profoundly moving stories to emerge from the Second World War.


One of the most cold-blooded massacres in human history, but one that could have benefitted from more often venturing outside of the main protagonist’s and his friends' personal troubles to bear witness to the heinous crimes perpetrated on the Chinese public. DS

REVIEW: DVD Release: The Edukators

Film: The Edukators
Release date: 26th September 2005

Certificate: 15

Running time: 120 mins

Director: Hans Weingartner

Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg

Genre: Crime/Drama

Studio: UGC

Format: DVD

Country: Germany

“Sie haben zu viel Geld,” or “You have too much money,” is the audacious claim of the self-proclaimed “Edukators” of the title. Passion is an integral quality; both in the complexities of romance and in the enthusiasm with which the male protagonists maintain their idealistic beliefs.

Its documentary-style quality and cinematography fit perfectly with the grungy, mysterious work of Jan and Peter, otherwise known as “The Edukators”. They carry out intricately planned and fairly harmless, but nonetheless criminal, activities at night which involve rearranging the interiors of the homes of wealthy people, and leaving a note informing the owners that their “days of plenty are over.”

When Peter’s girlfriend, Jule, is evicted from her house owing to unmanageable debts, she convinces a reluctant Jan to allow her to seek a small revenge on the man whom she owes the money to. It inevitably ends in a horribly convoluted mess that they cannot escape from.

Enlisting the help of Peter, this results in the abduction of the owner of the house while they think of how to solve their dilemma. The subsequent scenes find The Edukators becoming the educated, as they discover that they may not be so antithetical to the people whose houses they invade. The protagonists are thrown into a tangle of emotions and discoveries, which forces all of them, including their wealthy captive, to rethink the very foundation of their values and lifestyles…


The premise of the film sounds incredibly grave, and a little self-righteous: a couple of preachy anti-capitalists forcing their basic Marxist views onto innocent people. The hostage, Hardenberg, makes the point that it is his right to make money, and for that he should not have to apologise. This statement could have derailed The Edukators’ entire ethos for the audience, however, the characters’ insolent idealism and passion for their cause are more than enough to make them extremely likeable. They are unlike many other cinematic representations of young adults as they are not materialistic, selfish and lazy. Despite the impracticality and romanticism of their ideas, at least they have established beliefs, which are in fact reminiscent of major movements at the time of Hardenberg’s young adulthood. Jan, in particular, is a captivating character, full of poetics and philosophy – this draws the attention of the female audience members, and unfortunately also of Jule, his best friend’s girlfriend.

Romance in the film is a constant presence, which, without doubt, appeals to the audience. The obvious attraction between Jan and Jule is evocative of an archetypal Hollywood ‘love triangle’ narrative. However, the emergent temptation between the characters is much more subtle and delicate than usual and, typical of the protagonists, the situation culminates rather differently to audience expectations.

Ideology is scattered with hesitant romance, making this a very accessible and enjoyable film with which Weingartner attempts to both entertain and encourage fervent dedication in the audience. Even if The Edukators do not make much of a dent in their revolutionary endeavours, they keep trying right to the closing scene. They don’t have it all figured out, but who does? They occasionally contradict their own morals and values, but who doesn’t? In a particularly philosophical monologue by Jan, he talks about the impossibility of happiness in the people who buy into the system he hates so much. Although he is ranting about capitalism, his speech could well describe himself and his friends. They are never fully satisfied or content, which leaves the audience somewhere between sympathy and pity.

Their boisterous assertions that the consumerist, money-driven lifestyle of their targets won’t last forever is thrown back at them as Hardenberg leaves them realising that it may not be practical to live as rebels as they age. However, preferring to think of the present rather than the future, the choice to think about changing their ways is a barrier for both parties. Weingartner achieves a sort of catharsis through its exploration of the consequences of living at either end of the materialist spectrum; the audience is left thinking about the concepts of right and wrong, justice and blame.

Perhaps the most memorable line is left, oddly, to the least articulate of the protagonists, Peter: “It's not who invented the gun, but who pulls the trigger.” Despite the consistent cynicism regarding contradictions within both sides of the conflict, the film stresses the importance of not just having opinions and principles, but doing something about them.


The enthusiasm and charm of the characters wins over the audience in a film which is the perfect combination of mainstream accessibility and art-cinema expressiveness. SJC