Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of wasteland in Berlin. Having failed to find his bunker, he takes up temporary residence in a newspaper kiosk. There he is discovered by some TV producers, who take him to be a Hitler impersonator of rare method-acting genius. Soon he becomes the star of their satirical programme. His rants against foreigners and the welfare state are both consumed as comedy and secretly admired by a German public fed up with modern politics.

The book is a tightrope walk, because the main figure is Adolf Hitler. Moreover, he is depicted not as a caricature or a buffoon, but authentic and at the same time different from what we expect. He finds good Turks, likes the Green Party, and cannot relate to the far-right party NPD. He is enthusiastic about Wikipedia and complains about the lousy evening program on TV. As readers we catch ourselves agreeing with him in many ways.

There are moments when we laugh at him and some in which we laugh with him. The question, of whether it is allowed to laugh at Hitler, has been answered with “yes” since Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR. Nevertheless, it is not a free-ride. Hitler remains a delicate figure. Sometimes you don’t know if you should laugh or cry.

For me, the book is not about Hitler’s psychograph, but about society, about contemporary Germany and about us. Would it be possible for Hitler to rise nowadays again?

LOOK WHO'S BACK shows us our reflection in the mirror. Hitler becomes a catalyst who lets us learn something about ourselves. Racial hatred, anti-Semitism, democracy sullenness are on the rise. Not in the fictional world of the book, but in reality. Hitler’s crude theories, his world view and the simple answers he would give could meet with many people's approval. LOOK WHO'S BACK puts the finger on this wound. This is why the protagonist interacts with normal people. Thesescenes are recorded documentary, to show the reality beside the fiction.

Born in 1977 in Gelsenkirchen (Germany), David Wnendt studied Business Administration and Journalism at Freie Universität Berlin. After completing his first short film as an 18-year-old, he studied for a year at the prestigious Prague Film School FAMU.

After his master, Wnendt was admitted to the Konrad Wolf College of Film and Television in Potsdam. There, he was educated until 2011 as a film and television director. During his studies, he directed the 17-minute short film CALIFORNIA DREAMS. Wnendt won a first prize at the International Short Film Festival in Berlin in 2006. In 2007 he realised the 60-minute feature film KLEINE LICHTER which was broadcast in 2008 by the German-French TV channel ARTE. Wnendt was awarded with his graduation film, KRIEGERIN (2011) at the Filmhochschule. The drama is about a right-wing girl from East Germany (Alina Levshin), who turns into a courageously sensitive humanist by acquaintance with a girl from a middle-class house (Jella Haase) and a youthful refugee from Afghanistan (Sayed Ahmad Wasil Mrowat). KRIEGERIN was awarded the German Film Award in Bronze and the Actor Award for Alina Levshin in 2012. Wnendt received the German Film Award for Best Screenwriter, the Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Director, and the First Steps Award.

David Wnendt's second film, FEUCHTGEBIETE, an adaptation of the Charlotte Roche bestseller, premiered in 2013 at the Locarno IFF. The film was a great artistic and commercial success, over 1 million viewers saw it in German-speaking cinemas.

Filmography:
2013 FEUCHTGEBIETE
2011 KRIEGERIN
2008 KLEINE LICHTER
2005 CALIFORNIA DREAMS, short

READ the interview with director David Wnendt