Nazi sci-fi brings in the laughs at Berlin

A hybrid Finnish-German-Australian B movie Nazi-spoof has found itself the most widely discussed film at the Berlin Film Festival this month.

The Festival, which runs from 9-19th February, screened ‘Iron Sky’ at the Panorama sidebar event. The film is about a group of top Nazi scientists who escape the downfall of the Third Reich by leaving for the dark side of the moon in 1945. They hide away in their Swastika-shaped moon base, which they ominously dub ‘Black Sun,’ concocting plots to re-invade earth. When they incidentally come face to face with a black American astronaut in 2018, these harried plots are set into motion.

It is being viewed as symbolic of the movement of the gradual German acceptance of its past and a sign that the country is finally starting to move on. The film has been toting taglines such as ‘The Space Hun is coming’ and ‘In 1945, the Nazis went to the moon. In 2018, they are coming back.’

The Nazis aren’t the only people subjected to a touch of parody in the film. It would appear that the USA finally has a female President. Unfortunate it’s Sarah Palin. The American parodies don’t stop there, however, with George W Bush making a cameo as a navy cruiser.

The concept for the film was born “from a stupid joke dreamed up after a trip to the sauna,” said Finnish director Timo Vuorensola. “But we couldn’t get the idea out of our heads and we got more and more ambitious as we worked on the story.”

Instigated in Finland, the Iron Sky project found budgeting from two very different sources; the German government and independent donations from online fans of Vuorensola and the film’s producer, Samuli Torssonen. The budget for the film totalled €7.5m ($9.3m).

It was eventually filmed in Queensland, although it’s not as if you’d ever guess, given the film’s use of CGI. Australian actress Petra Sergeant became involved with the project playing the role of Vivian Wagner in the film.

The film has opened to mixed reviews, with the UK Guardian’s Andrew Pulver calling it “not nearly as funny or cruel as its killer premise suggests.” Andreas Borchelte from Der Spiegel, on the other hand, addressed the underlying effect of the spoof: “Laughing at the Nazis, that’s refreshing – especially in the capital.”

Either way, Iron Sky has brought in more ticket sales than Angeline Jolie’s ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’ and Werner Herzog’s ‘Death Row. Portraits: Linda Carty, George Rivas and Joseph Garcia,’ both of which also screened at the Berlin Film Festival. Off the success of this alone, the potential Hollywood remake rights may mark a successful proposition to Vuorensola and Torssonen.