Go Trabi Go (1991)

Family Struutz lives in Bitterfeld (GDR). After the fall of the wall, they take the opportunity to go on holiday with their car, an old Trabant. They simply want to visit Italy. But there ... See full summary »

Director:

Peter Timm

Writers:

Reinhard Klooss, Peter Timm

Stars:

Wolfgang Stumph, Claudia Schmutzler, Marie Gruber

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Wolfgang Stumph	...	Udo Struutz
Claudia Schmutzler	...	Jacqueline Struutz
Marie Gruber	...	Rita Struutz
Dieter Hildebrandt	...	Kfz-Meister
Ottfried Fischer	...	Bernd Amberger
Diether Krebs	...	Fernfahrer
Konstantin Wecker	...	Playboy
Billie Zöckler	...	Gerda Amberger
Barbara Valentin	...	Frau Gamshuber
André Eisermann	...	Alfons Amberger
Monika Baumgartner	...	Verkäuferin
Rolando Belli
Lisa Bernardini
Alfons Biber
Astrid Boner

Storyline

Family Struutz lives in Bitterfeld (GDR). After the fall of the wall, they take the opportunity to go on holiday with their car, an old Trabant. They simply want to visit Italy. But there are some incidents during their journey.

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Plot Keywords:

car | holiday | italy | nudist beach | road movie | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

17 January 1991 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Talla pohjaan, Trabi

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Filmstudios, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bavaria Film, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Because no one thought of shooting a 'Making of' or something similar, Wolfgang Stumph allowed the production company to use private video tapes he had shot on the set in 1990 for the "Behind the Scenes" material on the DVD release of this movie and its sequel.

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Connections

Followed by Das war der wilde Osten (1992)

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Soundtracks

"Questa notte"
Performed by Francesco Napoli

User Reviews

A rich and hilarious document of the times

This is not necessarily the best movie ever made, but it is a very precise look at a weird moment in history. Mankind had been sliced in half for more than 40 years by the Cold War. Suddenly it is all over and the one side suddenly has a lot of catching up to do.

I enjoy watching this movie with my girl-friend, some of her friends or her family, as they are from East-Germany and they always laugh at the Struutz-family's impossible misadventures, because it reminds them and all their neighbors of their first contacts with the west. Like cheeky Jacqueline always getting the upper hand in all her encounters with respect-less and unsuspecting boys from the west. Or Udo Struutz marveling at the beauty of a West-German public toilet. Or Rita Struutz's attempts at communicating with an Italian police officer. And of course the unforgettable Diether Krebs serving up a never ending assortment of "Trabbi"-jokes as a manic, arrogant West-German trucker. These moments reflect upon many "Ossis'" (East-Germans) experiences when they first visited the west after the wall had fallen.

If you look for a document of the times, this is probably the most truthful you will find, although some scenes are pure satiric overstatement and Jacqueline makes an absolutely unnecessary escape from her family at one point just to come up with an unconvincing song, possibly directed at starting a singing career for Claudia Schmutzler, which luckily never really took off.

Stay away if you want to learn German, however! The Struutzes speak in a very, very broad Saxon dialect which sounds very different from "clean" German.