Look who's back: HITLER returns (video)

Carol Hills The World (pri.org, April 11, 2016); Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

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Yes, it's okay for modern Germans to laugh about Hitler. Here's why.

Germans have been laughing out loud about a Hitler film for a while, but now on Netflix it's available for the rest of us.

 

"Look Who's Back" (the German title is "Er Ist Wieder Da") is adapted from a bestselling satirical novel by German author Timur Vermes.

 

The conceit of the book is what would happen if Adolf Hitler returned to Germany 70 years after this death. How would he respond to the multicultural country that Germany has become?

(Netflix) For extended trailer with English subtitles, see below.

But when German director David Wnendt adapted it into a film, he turned the tables to focus on the German people.

"The book is completely fiction. You read it and it's just like an author's imagination. I had this idea that if you turned it into a film you could try out the main hypothesis of the book.
 

Actor Oliver Masucci as Adolf Hitler at a Berlin news kiosk realizing he's woken up in the 21st century multicultural Germany that is not what he struggled for (Constantin Film/pri.org).

 

I'm not laughing.

"The book is about Hitler coming back and how people react to him and whether he would have another chance today. And using documentary film means I would be able to really test that, really see actually how people would react?"

 

Before shooting the dramatic film, Wnendt took the actor who plays Hitler all over Germany. He was dressed as Hitler and in character to find what reaction he would get. The result is a mockumentary that makes you laugh and then it makes you feel uncomfortable that you're laughing. More