This German film directed by Wolfgang Becker comically portrays the  collapse of communism. Suffering a heart attack and falling into a coma after seeing her son arrested during a protest, Alex's (Daniel Brühl) socialist mother Christiane (Katrin Sass), remains comatose through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German Democratic Republic. Knowing that the slightest shock could prove fatal upon his mother's awakening, Alex strives to keep the fall of communism secret for as long as possible by reconstructing the GDR in the family's flat. Alex's scheme works for a while, but it's not long before his mother is feeling better and ready to get up and around again.

Professor Harold Marcuse (UCSB) will give a scholarly introduction and lead the post-screening discussion.