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Look Who's Back poster

Look Who's Back (Er ist wieder da)

2015 · 116 min · movie
⭐ 7.0 (54,193 votes)

In 2014, Adolf Hitler wakes up in the Berlin park where his Führerbunker once stood. Disoriented, he wanders through the city, interpreting modern situations from a wartime perspective. Mistaken for an impersonator, Hitler encounters a mime and an anxious young mother, the latter of which pepper-sprays him. He faints after reading a newspaper stating the year is 2014.

Meanwhile, at the MyTV television station offices, leading executive Christoph Sensenbrink is denied a promotion. Unleashing his rage, he fires Fabian Sawatzki, a freelance filmmaker. Sitting at home, Sawatzki spots Hitler in the background of his documentary footage and his mother suggests that a film about him would be successful. As Hitler wakes up at a newspaper kiosk, he reads about a changed Germany and laments the loss of his vision. Believing destiny has a purpose for him, Hitler decides to continue his work, and eventually he is found by Sawatzki.

Sawatzki proposes filming Hitler for YouTube and they embark on a journey across Germany. Hitler interacts with ordinary Germans and speaks to them about contemporary social and political issues. Sawatzki's idea for an animal-centric film clip ends abruptly when the normally animal-loving Hitler shoots a dog after it bites him.

Sawatzki introduces Hitler and his program idea to MyTV executives, including the new managing director, Katja Bellini (who got the promotion Sensenbrink desired). Bellini supports Hitler and his ideas while Sensenbrink is opposed. Hitler learns about the Internet and obsessively reads Wikipedia. On air, he speaks about the problems in modern German society which he noticed during his journey. The speech is remixed and talked about by various famous YouTubers, unintentionally becoming a comedy hit.

Hitler meets with various right wing fringe parties and laments that none of them have the rhetoric or leadership skills that he has. Meanwhile, Sensenbrink sends an anonymous complaint of incitement of racial violence to the public prosecutor, summoning police at the MyTV offices, only for the prosecutor to personally praise the show and dismiss the complaint as leftist drivel.

However, Sensenbrink finds the unedited footage of Hitler shooting the dog, and in an act of revenge broadcasts it during Hitler's next interview. This causes Hitler, Sawatzki and Bellini to all be fired from the station.

Hitler publishes a book titled " Er Ist Wieder Da " (" He is Back ") about his new life, which becomes a popular bestseller, despite the controversy he has garnered for shooting the dog. Sawatzki turns Hitler's book into a film.

3 months later, without Hitler, MyTV's ratings plummet. In a fit of rage, which parodies a scene from Downfall, Sensenbrink ultimately decides to finance the film.

During filming, Hitler is attacked by Neo-Nazis who mistake him for a mocking impersonator. Hitler is hospitalized, and when news of this generates sympathy for him, his popularity soars. Sawatzki reviews his footage and travels to the spot where Hitler rose from the ground.

He discovers burnt leaves and a sign that the Führerbunker once stood at that location. Sawatzki realizes Hitler is not an impersonator and goes to confront him at the hospital, but Hitler has already been discharged, and only Bellini is in the room. Sawatzki tries to explain the truth to her, but she does not believe the story and hospital staff begins to chase him.

At the MyTV set, Hitler is filming when he is interrupted by Sawatzki holding him at gunpoint. Hitler allows Sawatzki to direct them to the rooftop, where Sawatzki shoots him off the side of the building. Hitler reappears behind him, unharmed, and the confrontation is revealed to be a film scene with an actor playing Sawatzki; the real Sawatzki had been committed to a mental hospital.

As Hitler's film finishes, he senses a political comeback. In the final scene, he and Bellini ride in a car through Berlin. The music tone changes sharply when bystanders begin performing the Nazi salute at him, and the film intersperses his monologue with clips of real-life contemporary far-right protests and interviews with politicians such as Marine Le Pen. Hitler says to himself: "I can work with this."

Directed by

David Wnendt

Starring

Christoph Maria Herbst
Fabian Busch
Oliver Masucci
Lars Rudolph
Michael Ostrowski
Katja Riemann
Franziska Wulf
Michael Kessler