The construction of ostalgie identity in the movie Sonnenallee (1999)

Rizky Aulia Ramadhian, Lilawati Kurnia

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Film is one of the media that can be analyzed through various perspectives. In the 90s the German film industry was shocked by the "ostalgie" phenomenon. Ostalgie itself is a longing for life in East Germany. The film Sonnenallee (1999) by Leander Haußmann is one example of the ostalgie film that will be analyzed in this discussion. Sonnenallee's popularity made this film one of the ostalgie films that is often analyzed, one of them by Dale (2007). Dale thinks that Sonnenallee is a dangerous "nostalgic comedies" film because this film shows East Germany lightly. Through this description of "nostalgic comedies," an element of discourse regarding East Germany was found, which is similar to the discourse that existed in the colonial period. Ostalgie turns out not only to be longing, but can also be interpreted as a form of satire and even a discourse. This analysis will be carried out by selecting the most prominent specific scenes. Through this analysis, it can be seen how the portrayal of "nostalgic comedies" in this film becomes dangerous, as well as how the discourse in this ostalgie film successfully presents East Germany as the "other."

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProblematising Representation in Popular Culture
PublisherNova Science Publishers, Inc.
Pages273-283
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9781536179583
Publication statusPublished - 26 Jun 2020

Keywords

  • East German
  • Film
  • Ostalgie
  • Sonnenallee

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