Present Shock

The kindly folks at Crooked Timber remind me I've got to go see Good-bye, Lenin! as soon as it comes to the U.S. The premise is that a young East Berliner's mother falls into a coma just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. When she comes-to, the doctor warns him that any serious shock could do her in… and so he's forced to go to amusing lengths to persuade her that they're still living under a communist dictatorship. Good buzz so far. The North American rights have been picked up by Sony Classic, but there's no release date yet.