Captivating movie !

An Exercise In Nonsense

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I am sure that those who have at least their childhood (like me) spent in a pseudo-socialist undemocratic country, would watch Sonnenallee with sense of recognition, with things most of us have probably aimed to forget. On the other hand, when you are young, minor, your perceptions are still different from those of adults, who are in need of living on and supporting their family. First love, new music, friendship, coming of age, hobbies, plans for future are universal. In my opinion, all those aspects are well and realistically (now one can giggle or laugh out these absurd things) depicted in this movie, with convincing performances by an even cast. By the way, the Soviets would have vacated all streets close to their "enemy", odd that it was possible to live so close to the Berlin Wall.Furtermore, I would disagree with them who think that Sonnenallee is a kind of glorification of the GDR. Really? For nonrenovated houses, constant shortage of even crumbling goods, brainwash by authorities, fear for police and "rats", strict punishments for harmless pranks, limited travel options, etc.? Those who do had apparently a "good" life at the expense of others...I can hardly guess how films like this would act upon the people unaware of socialist dictatorships. Perhaps they would regard them as unintelligent comedies. But the film in question could be shown more within the former Eastern bloc.

The film Sonnenallee is a comedy of the absurd humor type, a bit like the Monty Python stories. A sense of humor is always rather personal, and to be fair the fun in Sonnenallee is not my thing. Maladjusted fun feels weird, and this makes the conception of this review a somewhat precarious undertaking. In Sonnenallee everything is chaotic. The characters are ill-contrived and unpredictable. They move in all directions, without pattern. There is a scene, where the main character Micha suddenly strikes down his friend, for the simple reason that he has accepted this narrow-minded job. The events have no understandable coherence, but arbitrary hop on and off your screen. Evidently the fact that I watched the "extended" version did not allay the confusion. Does it reflect the existentialism of Sartre, which is actually hailed in the film itself? Or is it an attempted alliance with the Nouvelle Vague? The story unfolds in a quarter of East-Berlin, in an alley immediately behind the illustrious Wall. Although the Wall is a stage-property that dominates many of the scenes, it remains an object without meaning or significance. If there are witted allusions, they are lost on me. More obvious hints would help. An example of the incomprehensible character studies: Micha has no pangs of conscience to enlist in the people's army. In one of the scenes at the Wall he even threatens to shoot down tourists, that are peeping from the west side. But at the same time, he keeps a diary, in which he taunts the allegedly repressive nature of the Leninist state. There can be no doubt: he is mentally unstable. You can allege that Sonnenallee is about a youth troop, whose members are in the process of trying to discover their own identity. But the adults in Sonnenallee are just as all-out deranged as the kids. The mother of Micha plans to defect to the west, on her own, but reconsiders and allures and seduces her dull husband. Two visitors in Berlin, who at home can not receive the western TV broadcastings, are impressed by their glitter and for hours sit gazing at the test screen. Joke: where is the English Channel? Answer: I don't know, my TV does not pick it up. To be fair, not all is bunk. Yes, tall exaggerations can be fun. For instance, there is this scene, where a young guest from Vietnam makes an allocution before an audience of pupils, in her own exotic language. Naturally she almost disappears behind the reading-desk. At the end the audience reacts elated. And: the teacher is indignant, or should I write shocked, because Micha has peed in the direction of her beloved "anti-fascist protection barrier". Joke 2: did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher? She could not control her pupils. So let us allow for some amusing moments in Sonnenallee. But it could be more. I had all-time expectations, considering the awkward theme of the clash of ideologies. To be fair, Sonnenallee avoids the demagogic and self-conceited atmosphere, that is alloyed in Goodbye Lenin. If you enjoy kids being silly, the film Berlin Ecke Schönhauser of Defa Studios also narrates about a youth troop. In Berlin, yes. Pronounce: Bearleen. This film dives deep into the commonplace temptations of East and West, without becoming too censorious. The translation is not all-in, as usual with Ice Storm. Or see my other reviews.

You won't believe it ... but this movie describes my whole sucking youth on the eastern side of the iron curtain! My name is Michael (short Micha), I was just 16 years old when the wall became opened and I lived (and still live) on the eastern side of Berlin :D Yeah! That movie is telling the absolutely truth of my youth and the life of all the other young people in East Berlin - not only them who lived nearby the wall! My western relatives brought (smuggled) some western stuff to the GDR which we couldn't buy on the east side ... except you had some DM (Deutsche Mark /currency of West Germany) ... for that money you had the chance to buy western stuff in some so called "Intershops" on the east side. But because not so many people had hard currencies, the black market was the first and mostly only choice for us to buy western music, western magazines and any other western stuff illegally for a much higher price. For a simple Stones album you had to pay a damn huge price ... up to 200 or 300 Mark (former eastern currency) as far as I remember ... most people in the GDR got up to 800 Mark per month. The already working youth had not much more then 150 Mark per month.Yeah ... that movie is telling the absolutely truth about my live ... well ... up to 90 percent ;o) Watch that movie! DO IT!!! :D

The movie is located in a Berlin street of the 70's - the Sonnenallee. The street is divided by the Wall. Micha and his friends live on the other side of the Wall - in the East.This movie shows us that DDR-Kids were not very different from those in the West. They are not interested in politics or communism, but in what is much more important: SEX DRUGS AND ROCK 'N' ROLL!In addition to this interesting insight into everyday life in the DDR the movie is really funny. There are so many comedy elements in it. There is for example a scene in which a East German soldier tries to explain to a West German why the Eastern radio is superior to the Western technology - it has less functions and is therefore easier to handle. And the disastrous party is just great... But - just watch it!