1) The film Good Bye, Lenin! tells the story of Alex Kerner and his family in East Germany as they cope with his mother's heart attack during the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany. 2) To avoid another heart attack from shock, Alex convinces his family and friends to pretend that East Germany still exists to comfort his recovering mother. 3) The film uses the family's experience to comment on how ordinary citizens had no control over the political changes happening in Germany at the time and explores themes of falsified reality and the transition from communism to capitalism.