Learning to Lie

Helmut (Busch) has the hangdog looks that go down well with the girls – but he also has that male fear of commitment, and can’t shake off his feelings for his first love (Bormann)… Most of Handloegten’s unassuming rom-com is told by a succession of flashbacks, and as befits that gerund in the title, it’s the process – of growing up – that counts here. Countries, it’s clear, can ‘grow up’ as well: archive telly footage adds geopolitical counterpoint to the East German Helmut’s heartaches (though he prefers a post-coital fag to an opportunity to pull chunks out of the Berlin Wall). Amiable and lightweight, though very good on teen love; adapted from a novel of the same title by Frank Goosen.