Hitler set for German big screen comeback
Teasers released for film adaptation of book ‘Look Who’s Back,’ due for release in the fall
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
What would Adolf Hitler make of modern Germany, and what would Germany make of him? These questions are explored in a soon-to-be-released film adaptation of the best-selling 2012 satirical novel “Er Ist Wieder Da” (Look Who’s Back) by German author Timur Vermes.
German production company Constantin Film released teaser clips on Tuesday featuring Oliver Masucci as the Nazi leader who wakes up from a coma in the Berlin of 2011, penniless, homeless, and with no idea of what has happened since 1945.
As he sets about trying build a life for himself in a modern world that features such marvels as mobile phones and the Internet, Hitler unwittingly becomes a YouTube sensation, then a television celebrity, and finally turns his power-hungry mind to politics.
The book sold two million copies in Germany and 40 million around the world. It was originally released in hardback copy priced €19.33, a reference to the year that the real Hitler came to power in Germany.
Vermes told the BBC in 2013 that he deliberately presented Hitler as a human character, rather than a monster, to force Germans to reflect on how they feel about the infamous dictator.
“We have learnt over more than sixty years that Hitler was a bad person,” he said. “But by learning this, we don’t think that he did anything that made sense.”
“He was elected and people don’t elect idiots,” Vermes elaborated. “We are used to thinking that he wasn’t able to think clearly and have a certain kind of logic. I think that the surprise in the book is that Hitler has a certain kind of logic. It’s Hitler speaking. You know what he says. It’s him and you have to take a stand. Do you agree with him?”
Filming of the screen adaptation began last November and the movie is set for release in October.
