• Bye Bye Germany

    Directed by Sam Garbarski
    Germany/Luxemburg/Belgium | 102 minutes | World Cinema Now

  • Bye Bye Germany

    Directed by Sam Garbarski
    Germany/Luxemburg/Belgium | 102 minutes | World Cinema Now

  • Bye Bye Germany

    Directed by Sam Garbarski
    Germany/Luxemburg/Belgium | 102 minutes | World Cinema Now

  • Bye Bye Germany

    Directed by Sam Garbarski
    Germany/Luxemburg/Belgium | 102 minutes | World Cinema Now

  • Bye Bye Germany

    Directed by Sam Garbarski
    Germany/Luxemburg/Belgium | 102 minutes | World Cinema Now

In this wonderful dramedy, inspired largely by screenwriter Michel Bergmann’s own family history, the end of WWII finds mustachioed entrepreneur David Bermann enlisting fellow Holocaust survivors to sell overpriced “luxury” linens to guilt-ridden Germans. When Bermann is summoned by the occupying American forces his own past comes into question.

film synopsis

“Hitler is dead, but we’re still alive,” Holocaust survivor, and revered jokester, David Bermann (Moritz Bleibtreu, Run Lola Run) emphasizes to his newly assembled rag tag group of businessmen in the wonderful war dramedy Bye Bye Germany. Inspired largely by screenwriter Michel Bergmann’s own family history, the end of WWII finds mustachioed entrepreneur Bermann enlisting fellow survivors to shrewdly sell overpriced “luxury” linens to guilt-ridden Germans. For Bermann, business partner Holzmann (Mark Ivanir), and the rest of the motley crew, the goal is to raise enough money to travel to America, land of the free. Easier said than done when even an old standard on the radio triggers memories of the unequivocal horrors of the concentration camps. Yet when Bermann is mysteriously summoned by the occupying American forces and interrogated about his own past by sharp special agent Sara Simon (Antje Traue, Woman in Gold), the humor that got him through the war may prove to be his demise.

film details

Director: Sam Garbarski
Producers: Jani Thiltges, Sébastien Delloye, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
Screenwriter: Michel Bergmann
Cinematographers: Virginie Saint-Martin
Editor: Peter R. Adam
Music: Renaud Garcia-Fons
Cast: Moritz Bleibtreu, Antje Traue, Tim Sey, Mark Ivanir, Anatole Taubman
Original Language Title: Es war einmal in Deutschland
Country: Germany/Luxemburg/Belgium
Language: German and English
Year: 2017
Running Time: 102 minutes
Awards: Audience Award for Best Film, Norwegian International Film Festival

2018 Film Festival