SFJFF: My Fuhrer -- The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler

Question: Is the world ready for a German-Jewish black comedy mercilessly satirizing Adolf Hitler? At yesterday night's screening of My Fuhrer (Mein Fuhrer -- Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit uber Adolf Hilter) at the SF Jewish Film Fest, the mood of wicked glee was somewhat sobered by the person that we abruptly realized was security standing in front of the theater. (Nothing happened, though, as far as we know.)

The premise of the movie is that a famous Jewish acting professor, Adolf Grunwald, sent to a concentration camp in World War II, is summoned by Joseph Goebbels to coach a depressed and lackluster Adolf Hilter through a January 1944 speech in the bombed-out Berlin. Pretty much no fascist joke is unspared in the unnervingly-hilarious script, which in short order mocks the German love of paperwork, the Nazi salute, Hitler's bed-wetting and poor sexual prowess, and features the Fuhrer being humped by a dog to boot. Kind of like Hogan's Heroes, as written by Borat.

Along the way, the movie takes a thoughtful turn towards tougher questions of complicity and personal integrity, while also barreling through a mildly-convoluted and entertainingly-unrealistic plot towards its inevitable conclusion. (Spoiler! Hitler lives to lose the war.) What we particularly liked about the movie was that even while exploring the various sadnesses in his pathetic Fuhrer character's life, writer/director Dani Levy (who won this year's SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award) never allows you to feel bad for Hitler in any way.