Look Who’s Back, a comedy about the return of Hitler, has become an unlikely hit in Germany, heading to the top of the box office chart shortly after its release. The Borat-style film, based on the bestselling novel by Timur Vermes, puts Adolf Hitler back into German society and utilises the reactions of real people for humour.
The plot imagines that Hitler has woken up in modern day Berlin, with no memory of any event post-1945. Hitler is quickly discovered by an underemployed documentary film maker named Fabian Sawatzki. Like everyone else Hitler initially meets, Fabian is convinced that he is a method actor who is just impersonating Hitler. Fabian immediately recognizes the humor in Hitler’s awkward and hyper serious reactions to the world and envisions him as the star of a career-making film. He takes Hitler on a road trip, filming him interacting with ordinary Germans and in a number of fish-out-of-water scenarios.
Slowly, however, the film’s serious side emerges. Hitler listens sympathetically as ordinary Germans voice their displeasure with the current state of politics and increasing immigrant populations. Upon meeting Hitler in person, the producers of the television station, where Fabian works, decide Hitler will appear as a guest on a satirical show. On this program, Hitler makes a rousing, politically savvy speech to a rapt audience, and immediately becomes a national sensation.
Even though Hitler never claims to be anything other than the real thing, both the television station and the public continue to believe him to be a satirist. It is only Fabian, who begins to slowly entertain the possibility that Hitler is who he says he is. By the time he finds proof, however, it is too late.