Jewish jokes have been so successful for many comedians that you’d think the situations would be exhausted. However, the thought of Germans doing a Jewish comedy sounds like an intriguing prospect. The reputed fact that Dani Levy is planning next to do a comedy on Hitler, makes this doubly intriguing. This was an unlikely smash hit in Germany, seemingly overcoming its TV sitcom feel and rather clichéd narrative.

As it is, Go For Zucker is a pretty standard fish out of water/heartwarming cross-cultural clash story. Jaeckie Zucker (Harry Hubchen) is a former East-German sports presenter, whose life is on the slow slide to oblivion. His wife has just left him, he’s deep in debt, and his children barely want him around. He however hears his mother has died, and has left behind a will that can only be fulfilled if he reconciles with his brother, a strongly Orthodox Jew and Western German. Jaeckie is a cheery Jew of the lapsed kind, but is forced to strictly observe Jewish practices to comic effect. To make matters worse, his brother arrives with his entire (dysfunctional) family in tow, including a son who’s as Orthodox as they come.

A story of Jewish people putting aside deep-rooted differences in the pursuit of money doesn’t strike me as the best way to tackle stereotypes, but then again, Jaeckie does play the Holocaust card, and also fakes a heart attack at his mother’s funeral so he can go play pool. You can probably read re-unification metaphors into the story too, the East and West are forced to reconcile literally, while obviously the German and Jewish reunification metaphor would be key too. However, I’m not sure if this element is entirely successful, the Jews are shown as a bunch of screwed-up freaks, but there is no such politically incorrect treatment of the Germans.

The film does have a sense of humour. It is a light, fluffy farce that will be a big crowd-pleaser. While it straddles the line of plausibility (the relationships are frankly, rather ridiculous – wasn’t Jaeckie’s daughter lesbian as well???), it’s fast-paced and ultimately satisfyingly comforting.—Brannavan Gnanalingam