Sonnenallee (1999)

Director:

Leander Haußmann

Writers:

Thomas Brussig (novel)
Detlev Buck (writer)

Release Date:

7 October 1999 (Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Party in WILD WILD East.

Plot:

A group of kids grow up on the short, wrong (east) side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to...

Plot Keywords:

Border | East Germany | Teacher | Satire | Drug Abuse

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Alexander Scheer	...	Michael 'Micha' Ehrenreich
Alexander Beyer	...	Mario
Katharina Thalbach	...	Mutter Ehrenreich
Teresa Weißbach	...	Miriam Sommer
Detlev Buck	...	ABV
Henry Hübchen	...	Vater Ehrenreich
Ignaz Kirchner	...	Onkel Heinz
Robert Stadlober	...	Wuschel
Annika Kuhl	...	Sabine Ehrenreich
Elena Meißner	...	Sabrina
Horst Lebinsky	...	Grenzer
Martin Moeller	...	Kosscke
Patrick Güldenberg	...	Appel
David Müller	...	Brötchen
Margit Carstensen	...	Direktorin

Also Known As:

Sun Alley (USA)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Germany:6 (bw) | Australia:M | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Aula of Carl von Ossietzky Gymnasium, Pankow, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Boje Buck Produktion

Trivia:

Director Leander Haußmann claims that the film is not based upon Thomas Brussig' novel. According to Haußmann, he, Brussig and Detlev Buck had written the screenplay together, and Brussig had written his novel afterwords.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Herr Lehmann (2003)

Soundtrack:

Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen

Better and more nuanced than Goodbye Lenin

As an American who lived in former East Germany for a time, I was impressed by the way this film portrayed the ambivalence many Ossis felt about the fall of the Wall. The characters were more nuanced and their treatment more sensitive than that seen in the more popular Goodbye Lenin which, while a good movie, is more about the character's relationship with his mother than it is an accurate portrayal of life in East Germany. Goodbye Lenin seems to reduce the Ossi existence to communist commodification -- to be an Ossi is about what kind of pickles you eat -- whereas Sonnenallee allows its characters to be much more than consumers. In interviews with the makers of Goodbye Lenin, they have mentioned that much of their inspiration for their treatment of East Germans came from TV shows on East Germans.... Sonnenallee presents the eastern life without the extra refraction of the television screen.