About The Film

In 1933 Berlin, an apolitical ladies’ man Hans Zeisig (Michael Bully Herbig) and his close friend, Jewish communist Siggi Meyer (Jürgen Vogel), have a Stalin-Hitler cabaret act that never fails to crack up their audiences. But as the political winds shift, Meyer disappears into the Resistance, and Zeisig is under pressure to do an anti-Semitic parody. Instead, he dons Meyer’s Hitler outfit for a skit he knows will be his last. Unable to secure an American visa, Zeisig makes his way to the Hotel Lux in Moscow, where fearful and suspicious Comintern members mistake him for Hitler’s personal astrologer, a person of great interest to Stalin. His assigned translator is Frida Van Oorten, a beautiful and feisty Dutch partisan of Meyer’s, who only has contempt for Zeisig’s womanizing ways. Zeisig quickly realizes he’s unwittingly jumped from the frying pan into a minefield of political intrigue and back-stabbing, where hidden microphones are recording every word and being taken into Stalin’s confidence starts to get dangerous. This playfully old-fashioned comic caper with madcap energy is full of twists and turns and strong performances. Devices and techniques from another era—elaborate studio sets, matte paintings and dolly shots—and a lush orchestral soundtrack also benefit this clever, entertaining historical adventure that zigzags between love, death and chutzpah.

 Sponsors:

• Lucy and Herb Pruzan

Community Partner:

• Congregation Tikvah Chadashah
• German Consulate General San Francisco