Bye Bye Germany

Es war einmal en Deutschland (2017) (also called Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland) was shown in the U.S. with the title Bye Bye Germany. It was co-written and directed by Sam Garbarski.

The movie stars Moritz Bleibtreu as David Bermann, who survived the Holocaust by telling jokes so funny that even the Nazi officers laughed. He has elected to stay in Germany after the war, using cunning and sales experience to get rich.

The lovely Antje Traue co-stars as a U.S. intelligence officer, who has the task of finding Jews who collaborated with the Nazis. This whole aspect of the film doesn't work. It just isn't realistic to expect the officer to spend hour after hour with Bermann. However, director Gabaski uses this device to illustrate what happened to Bermann in the concentration camp. When Bermann defends himself, we see flashbacks of what really took place.

I'm not familiar with Moritz Bleibtrau's work, but he is a consummate actor. It's worth watching the film to see a true professional bringing a role to life. The supporting cast is excellent, and the movie is very skillfully crafted.

We saw this film at the wonderful Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum. It was screened as part of the excellent Rochester Jewish Film Festival. It will work well on DVD. The film has a very weak IMDb rating of 6.5. I'm not sure why it has the low rating. It's much better than that.