GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Lightbox
When German filmmakers do comedy, it gets wild and weird fast - as three international hit films with star casts prove.
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Toni Erdmann (Germany, Austria 2016, 2h42m)
By Maren Ade, with Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek and more
Winfried doesn't see much of his working daughter Ines. The suddenly student-less music teacher decides to surprise her with a visit after the death of his old dog. It's an awkward move because serious career woman Ines is working on an important project as a corporate strategist in Bucharest. The geographical change doesn't help the two to see eye to eye any better. Practical joker Winfried loves to annoy his daughter with corny pranks. What's worse are his little jabs at her routine lifestyle of long meetings, hotel bars and performance reports.
Father and daughter reach an impasse, and Winfried agrees to return home to Germany. Enter dazzling "Toni Erdmann": Winfried's smooth-talking alter ego. Disguised in a tacky suit, weird wig and even weirder fake teeth, Toni barges into Ines' professional life, claiming to be her CEO's life coach. Wilder and bolder than Winfried, Toni doesn't hold back, and Ines meets the challenge. The harder they push, the closer they become. In all the madness, Ines begins to understand that her eccentric father might deserve some place in her life after all.
The character of Winfried is loosely based on director Ade's father, who wore a pair of fake teeth she gave him as a gag gift to play practical jokes.
59 international awards & 84 nominations & an Oscar nomination
Sandra Huller to Women in Hollywood: “I always think about how humor works, and it was the question we were asking ourselves during the process. What is it that makes people laugh? What is funny about Toni? I think the desperation of the people is the origin of comedy.”
“A humane, hilarious triumpf.” – Variety
“Achingly funny, utterly surprising, a genuine crowd pleaser.” – LA Times
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GOETHE FILMS is celebrating 70 years of German Films, Germany's film marketing agency and a strong partner of the Goethe-Institut worldwide, with this program out of a selection of the best and most successful German films over the past seven decades by German film expert Alfred Holighaus.
Part of the Goethe-Institut focus on German film
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