Alex is devoted to his mother, a firm believer in the Marxist reality that is East Germany. Awakening from an eight month coma brought on by a heart attack, a lot has changed since Alex's mum last viewed the world; the Berlin wall has fallen and Germany is once again one. Warned by the doctors that any great shocks could be fatal, Alex becomes determined that his mother, even if it's within the confines of her own four walls, will continue to observe a communist society unchanged. All these subterfuges are complicated by his sister's motherhood and his first love…but Alex is a determined lad and no collapse in the most wide spread political ideology of the last couple of centuries will prevent him from achieving his aims. Goodbye Lenin is in turns funny and thoughtful, farcical and touching, a beautifully observed and effortlessly simple drama, set during a remarkable time.