# In Goodbye Lenin, did the mother ever find out the truth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988 "2015-07-01T20:42:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988/1 "2015-07-01T20:42:13Z")
Fantastic movie, which is one of the few non English films that I have seen multiple times. Did the mother ever find out about Alex’s deception; we see the Soviet nurse saying something about the “border opening”, and she certainly suspected something was up when she went outside, and probably when she met her ex-husband, but did she ever know the whole truth? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988/2 "2015-07-01T23:50:04Z")
It’s been awhile since I saw it, but I think that yes she figured out what happened even before Lara told her. IIRC from the commentary that’s Katrin Saß’s interpretation too. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988/3 "2015-07-02T00:01:21Z")
[Previous thread on the film](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=379142) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988/4 "2015-07-02T00:50:51Z")
Her last scene strongly implies she knows the truth. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988/5 "2015-07-02T08:18:13Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Her last scene strongly implies she knows the truth. Agreed. Do you think she knew before though? Unlike the trailer and the synopsis, she is not portrayed as stupid, quite the opposite in fact. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988/6 "2015-07-02T12:25:55Z")
I think she figured it out when she got out of the apartment and saw the advertisements. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-goodbye-lenin-did-the-mother-ever-find-out-the-truth/723988/7 "2015-07-04T04:19:17Z")
I gather she’d realized her son had been lying to her, but that it was out of love so she played along. I’m not certain she fully grasped the scope of the changes Germany had undergone; heck, even if you were uncomatose while it was happening, it was still pretty wild.