The Merdeka Post

As we inches in slowly towards Merdeka, let me share one of my favourite movie about Merdeka.

Except of course, it is not about our Malaysian Merdeka. It is about the German Reunification. I know, I know.. independence and reunification are two different things.. but hey, they are also quite similar right?

Here's what Wikipedia's synopsis about the movie. Yeah, yeah.. whatever. I'm not really a short and simple person. I don't want to bore you. It's about the same as what I was writing anyway though maybe a lot shorter.

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The film is set in East Berlin in 1989-1990. Alexander Kerner lives with his mother Christiane and sister Ariane in a small apartment. His father has fled to the West, apparently abandoning the family. In his absence, Alex's mother has become an ardent idealist and supporter of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany. 

When she sees Alex being arrested in an anti-government demonstration, she suffers a near-fatal heart attack and falls into a coma.

Shortly afterward, the Berlin Wall falls. 

After eight months, she awakes but is severely weakened both physically and mentally. Her doctor says that any shock might cause another, possibly fatal, attack. Alex realizes that the discovery of recent events would be too much for her to bear, and so sets out to maintain the illusion that things are as normal in the German Democratic Republic. To this end, he and Ariane return the previous drab decor to the apartment, dress in their old clothes, and feed the bed-ridden Christiane new Western produce from old-labeled jars. 

Their deception is successful, albeit increasingly complicated and elaborate. Christiane occasionally witnesses strange occurrences, such as a gigantic Coca-Cola advertisement banner unfurling on a building outside the apartment. With his friend, a would-be filmmaker, Alex edits old tapes of East German news broadcasts and creates fake special reports on TV to explain these odd events away. Since the old news shows were fairly predictable, and Christiane's memory is a bit hazy, she is initially fooled.

Christiane eventually gains strength and wanders outside one day while Alex is asleep. She sees all her neighbors' old furniture piled up in the street for garbage collection, a car dealer selling BMWs instead of Trabants and advertisements for Western corporations. However, Alex and Ariane quickly find her, take her home, and show her a fake special report that East Germany is now accepting refugees from the West following a severe economic crisis. Christiane, initially skeptical, finally decrees that, as good Socialists, they should open their home to these newcomers.

However, Christiane relapses one day and is taken back to the hospital. Under pressure to reveal the truth about the fall of the East, Alex creates a final fake news segment. He convinces a taxi driver to identify himself as Sigmund Jähn, the first German in space, who in the segment becomes the new leader of East Germany, and gives a speech promising to make a better future by opening the borders to the West. Christiane is very impressed by the "broadcast", but in fact already knows the truth, as Alex's girlfriend had revealed everything when he was not around. The tables are turned completely, and it is Alex who is being protected from reality. 

Christiane dies soon afterwards, but not before seeing her husband one last time. It is revealed that he had wanted the family to join him in West Berlin. However, Christiane, fearing the government would take away Alex and Ariane, had gotten cold feet and therefore chosen to stay in the East.

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What I find interesting about this movie is on how they portray the now defunct East Germany. To them, Alex especially, it is more than a country. It is a personification of their mother, who she is, what she stood for and all her struggles and sacrifices. It is an amalgamation. You can really feel this through the last few lines of that movie, as spoken by Alex.
The country my mother left behind is a country she believed in. A country we kept alive till her last breath. A country that never existed in that form. A country that in my memory, I will always associate with my mother.
This is a few wonderful things I've learn in film class. Movies make you think of things not necessarily as what they are. People don't see a son's love for his mother when they think about a country. It is the same as another movie I watched, a Japanese movie about Udon where noodles symbolizes a son's quest to be accepted by his father. That is what I tried doing in my story about how a couch can be significant in a friendship.

Thinking about Goodbye Lenin!, I can't help but to reflect on Malaysian movies, patriotic onces especially. Why must a Merdeka story be about an actual event that happened in our history? Yes, those events are important and those people are important.. but can't we just for once look at things differently. Yasmin Ahmad did. She looked as a kasut made in Gombak and she saw the self believe of a country. Why don't we have more people that think that way?

True, we must feel thankful about how our forefathers fought for independence. But honestly, I understand why many of us don't really appreciate it other than just a holiday. It's not that we don't love the country.. it is because we can't relate to it as much as people who've been through it. I've read about how evil he Japanese were but I can't relate to it. In my memory and lifetime, Japanese people are cute. They dress funky and they create beautiful gadgets. How is it for me to see that the are evil when a lot of things in my life are made easy because of them?

The same goes for everything else. Are the communist really evil? Saying that in Malaysia is like denying the Holocaust in Germany. Through my life I've learn that it wasn't only UMNO, MCA and MIC who fought for independence. How appreciative of Merdeka would I be if I only appreciate what Tunku, Tan Cheng Lock and Sambanthan did and turn a blind eye to Ahmad Boestamam and Burhanuddin Al-Helmi's struggle? Which leads to another question. Do we celebrate Merdeka or do we celebrate the people who made it happen?

Persoalan.. banyak persoalan.

I think what I need now is a new meaning for what Merdeka is. Okay, maybe to my grandfather and grandmother Merdeka is being free from colonial rule. That is what Merdeka is to them. I'm still looking for mine. I'm still looking for heroes of my time for me to look up to.

Till then, Selamat Hari Merdeka would still sound hollow. 

Selamat Mecari Erti Kemerdekaan.

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Published:
Thursday, August 28, 2008
by amerhadiazmi