Facing Reality: A Tale of Denial in Politics and Film

In the German film “Goodbye, Lenin!”, a mother who is deeply committed to communism suffers a heart attack in autumn 1989 and falls into a coma. When she wakes up, she is shocked to find that the Berlin Wall has fallen, Germany is on its way to reunification, and communism has collapsed. To protect his mother from the shock of this new capitalist reality, her son Alexander goes to great lengths to create fake news bulletins that show Berliners rushing east instead of west and maintaining the illusion of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) in her bedroom while the outside world embraces capitalism with Ikea furniture, Volkswagens, and Coca-Cola.

This theme of denial of circumstances also plays out in British politics. Recently, Rishi Sunak, a Conservative Party member, celebrated their only victory in Teesside out of 11 mayoral races in local elections. Despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson trailing Labour by 20 points in national polls, Sunak boldly declared that Labour must win in the region for the Conservatives to succeed in a general election. However, reality shows that the Conservatives actually suffered a swing against them which would lead them to lose every seat in key regions known as “red walls” – traditionally Labour strongholds that they had proudly won during the 2019 general election.