Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, German cinemagoers are flocking to see a new comedy film which offers a nostalgic portrayal of everyday life for teenagers in the former communist East Germany.
The Eastie Boys, as the film will be known in English, is written and directed by an east German. Set in 1970s East Berlin, it pokes fun at the secret police, the Kalashnikov-toting border guards and the condescending attitudes of West Germans towards easterners.
Most of all, it tries to show that life in one of the Soviet bloc’s most totalitarian states could also be fun. “We did not suffer every day of the year,” said the film’s director, Leander Haussmann, who grew up in East Berlin. “The happiest years of my life were spent in East Germany,” he added.
The Eastie Boys is already expected to become the most successful German production of the last five years. More than 130,000 cinemagoers saw the film in the first three days since its release last week. The film was released tocoincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of East Germany. It is riding the crest of a wave of nostalgia for the communist way of life.
Eastern nostalgia (Ostalgia’) parties are all the rage in Berlin and the heirs to the former East German Communist party made spectacular gains in Berlin city government elections at the weekend. The film’s German title, Sonnenallee, refers to a real Berlin street divided by the Wall until 1989. The film focuses on five teenagers living in shadow of the Wall. They are seen attending compulsory meetings of the communist youth movement. Their shabby appearance is laughed at by visiting westerners. But the heroes of The Eastie Boys are more interested in sex, homemade hallucinogenic drugs, alcohol and western rock music than in their political predicament. The film’s climax is a rock’n’roll street party in which the border guards atop their watchtowers are seen twanging their machine guns as if they were guitars.
This depiction will seem flippant toformer East German political prisoners and the relatives of those killed trying to escape over the Wall. But so far criticism of The Eastie Boys has been mild. Ten years after the Wall, it is the pleasant memories that the East Germans have retained.
The Guardian News Service
