Director: Andreas Dresen, colour, 102 mins, 2015/2016
Timm Thaler is a boy who really has nothing to laugh about. His mother is dead, and soon his father is, too. Still, he laughs often and gladly, and his laughter is infectious to those around him. This brings the devilish Baron Lefuet (in German, an anagram for "Devil") to come up with a plan: Timm should sell him his laughter in exchange for never again losing a bet. The poor kid becomes immensely rich – and poor at the same time, because he has to give himself over to the evil betting partner. The only salvation: were Lefuet to lose a bet with him, Timm would get his laughter back.
Andreas Dresen has taken the 1962 bestseller by James Krüss, which was also a hit when adapted for TV in 1979, and restaged the story with lots of imagination and effort. The final insight: there is nothing worth selling your soul for.
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