It is a wonderful and charming film, which explains about the events in autumn 1989, how it came about and what followed afterwards. The personal story is a vehicle to transport how people in the East felt and dealt with the change, and how the change dealt with them.

In fact, it is a bit like a hidden documentary topped with a quite unbelieveable personal tragi-comical love story. The beauty lies in the contrast and honesty of describing the "real socialism" in the GDR and showing what it actually meant to people living in the system, and what it was later glorified to have been, after the East has basically been taken over by the West and its capitalist values.
In this set-up it reminds a bit of "Sonnenallee" and "Helden wie wir", the other East German comedies, which focus more on the life in the GDR and its absurdities, this film focusses on the change. And how better can the change be described when having a static image of "East Germany" been brought in reference and relation to the "new system". Systems are difficult to describe anyway, and the featured persons have been asigned different attributes on how to make the systems obvious for the audience. The mother is symbolising the old system- naturally she has to die at the end- but beforehand she is trying to pull herself together, and reminding the audience of what positive features the GDR had to offer; the sense of community, the friendliness, and some quality products- if they were available; the absencse of obvious greed; and a struggle for a more social society in a stabilised and secured surrounding. But she also symbolises the big lie, that this socialism was brought about by the fear of repression rather than real conviction, the restriction of freedom of movement, the fairytale news, symbolised by the blindfolding of the mother, so not to allow anything to be seen that might upset her.
Alex, her son, is the nurturer, he has to find big strentghs to hold up his mother, by bribing neighbours, appealing to their sympathy and using friendships. In a way he symbolises the change- trying to connect and bring together the past with the present. Although it seems cruel sometimes, he is acting in the believe that he does the best for his mother, but also, it seems that, with time, he needs his very own version of history and socialism to comfort himself, and to build up his much more dignified and human version of a reunification, symbolised by the mother meeting her former husband and love again before she dies.

The film is a great fun comedy, and if you want to think more about its underlying message, the interpretation is up to you.