Sonnenallee (2000)

Starring:: Detlev Buck

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Former theater director Leander Hausmann sets out to prove that the children of the Berlin Wall had more on their mind than politics in this bittersweet coming-of-age tale, set about a decade before the wall was dismantled. Hausmann's teens live along "Sun Alley," a street split in two by a checkpoint between East and West Berlin, and they occasionally talk of starting a resistance movement. Their revolutionary dreams are quickly dashed, however, in favor of dreaming about the opposite sex. Easterners Micha (Alexander Scheer) and Mario (Alexander Beyer) spend their days listening to bootlegged Rolling Stones records and endlessly scheming ways to lose their virginity. Meanwhile, Micha has to put up with his eccentric clan, including a mom (The Tin Drum's Katharina Thalbach) who's dreaming up disguises for escaping the country, a pop (Henry Huebchen) who bemoans the state of Eastern products, and a sis (Annika Kuhl) who throws herself at any available man in town. Nicknamed "The Eastie Boys," Sonnenallee certainly resonated with audiences in its homeland: Germans flocked to the film in record numbers, making it one of the country's most successful homegrown productions in years. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide