So I have a friend and one of our favourite past times is to watch really bad movies. And when I say really bad, I mean Flash Gordon bad. A peruse of Netflix’s horror section will show a large list of things that’ll make you question why they were ever made. Yes, I contribute to the existence of the Sharknado series (even though we have yet to start it – beginning with the last and working our way back of course).

It’s our equivalent of “mindless entertainment” though mostly it’s revelling the sensation of confusion than anything else. And who knew there was such a large bafflement market?

Granted, a number of these movies are quite likely honest attempts at art which produced questionable results. The more earnest the creator, the more guilty the pleasure.

Thus, when my friend discovered a comedy about time-travelling Hitler who starts his own news program, we thought we were in for a treat.

What we didn’t expect was an actual good movie.

There is something to be said for foreign films and their liberty from the Hollywood blockbuster mould. That conversation can be saved for another day, however. But that German film isn’t as beholden to rigid American film standards certainly made Er ist wieder da a far better better experience than one that would be filmed in the oppressive heat of Los Angeles, California.

On it’s face, Er ist wieder da is a rather uninspiring film. Its premise is that Adolf Hitler (yes, the Adolf Hitler) is transported in time to a decided modern 2014 Berlin. It’s your typical “fish out of water” but with slapstick comedy towards the homicidal Fuhrer of history. When he first awakens, he discovers three youths playing soccer and earnestly asks them for directions to his Chancellery. The film is overlaid with Hitler’s internal monologue and at first he sees everything through his outdated viewpoint for comedic effect. The children are disappointingly useless. Hitler wanders towards Brandenburg Square only to be mobbed by a host of tourists wanting selfies with the tyrant. He eventually stumbles across a newsstand and, upon learning the actual date, passes out.

And here is where I need to discuss the film’s peculiar format. It’s really a movie about two stories. One focuses on a failing reporter (the one attempting to do a maudlin piece about inner city youths and their need for soccer as a coping mechanism to today’s hardships) who discovers Hitler and hatches a plan to use him as a means to upgrade his freelance work for a social media company to a full-time position. The other story is how modern Germans react to Hitler in their midst.

One of these stories is not like the other.

There’s a curious blend of fiction and reality traced throughout Er ist wieder da. Fabian Sawatzki (the reporter) mistakenly assumes that Hitler is just a very devoted method actor. Him and his bosses are more taken by Hitler’s dedication than his words and view him more as a joke or novelty than the villain of their history books. It really is just all fun and games with the politics at MyTV being the primary motivator for the different characters to continue to aid Hitler.

And this disbelief directly feeds into the second story.

While Hitler is being attended by the newsstand agent, he is told that his clothes are filthy and he should go get them cleaned. A flummoxed Hitler then enters into a dry cleaning service. It’s at this moment that the film gets strange.

The interaction between the clerk and Hitler is decided “off.” It’s a scene played for laughs – Hitler is determined to find a dry cleaner that will wash his undergarments – but there’s no denying the uncanny realisation that these clerks aren’t… well… actors. It becomes readily apparent that Er ist wieder da has adopted some of the Sasha Baron Cohen style satire wherein the filmmakers (ostensibly unwittingly) discuss and film real life people when one of the attendants looks directly at the cameraman as if to ask whether this is really happening.

But rather than dispel the meta-fiction of the movie and it’s premise, this splicing of real life scenes elevates Er ist wieder da from some overdone trite cliche into a rather disturbing and effective movie.

The change is grossly subtle and that is the point. Sawatzki drags his newfound Hitler about Germany like a show puppy on parade. They attempt some humorous news segments like Hitler commenting on the German coastline (before being hit by a storm) or trying to buy a puppy (which he promptly shoots for biting him). Sawatzki’s attempts to sell Hitler to his boss prompts another unscripted scene where Hitler offers to make them some money by falling back on his talents as a painter by doing (rather poor) caricatures of tourists in a German town square.

It should be no surprise that most people treat these interactions as a joke. Certainly it is unbelievable that Hitler could travel through time (even the fictional characters cannot believe it) so many tourists play along with the actors and laugh at Hitler’s comments about imprisoning vagabonds and breeding strong, pure Germans. It’s to Oliver Masucci’s credit that this film even works because he never once breaks his portrayal of Hitler. The audience may even be lulled into a sense of empathy as Sawatzki and Hitler are threatened in the town square by some rather irate looking locals about a Hitler “impersonator” and the inappropriateness of their publicity stunt.

But the filmmakers are unyielding in the message. Hitler’s commentary is crystal clear: he’s only returned to continue on with his original work. When Sawatzki hits a dead end with his variety type programming, Hitler suggests that they should do a series on political commentary. He then interviews a local foodstand owner to learn what issues she has with the government that are being ignored. She almost immediately leans into the problems of foreigners and Muslims, which Hitler is quite eager to seize upon and encourage.

It does not take long for his unscripted moments to change from slapstick laughter to horrified laughter. The audience is captive as Hitler begins stoking these angers and fears of everyday Germans. He sits down with prominent members of the community, saying that they need to purify Germany by expelling the foreign invaders or rounding them up into camps. And the people agree. One official, when asked if he would vote for Hitler should he run, even admitted that he would – only after asking that they turn the camera off (which the filmmakers do not).

But this isn’t the clumsy racist reveals of Cohen’s Borat character. Er ist wieder da is far more elegant in using this naked satire because of how blunt it truly is. There’s no ambiguity in the movie. People are talking to Hitler. And the more he talks, and the more they agree with him, the harder it is to ignore that this isn’t Hitler before them. The movie may have shown that Masucci isn’t a particularly accurate double of Hitler but his mannerisms, speech and positions are.  With a Sasha Baron Cohen film, people are interacting with caricatures that have no baggage and history. Borat is as much to the people as he is to Cohen: a coat to be adorn to parade around in a role but ultimately discarded. People’s racist or frightening beliefs can be dismissed as those getting “pranked” by the actor.

But not so with Er ist wieder da. Hitler is Hitler. We know what the conclusions of agreeing with him entail. We know the end results he’s striving for. There’s no amount of deception here. This is Hitler, scapegoating undesirable members of society and enlisting German support and affection in doing so.

And that’s what’s so terrifying about the movie. There has been a lot of discussion and other films that warn the factors of 1930’s Germany were hardly unique. Most people can, on some basic level, recognise that another Hitler could arise. But it’s a wholly different story to see it happen shamelessly before you.

The fictional story of Er ist wieder da proceeds as you’d expect it. The MyTV quickly becomes a platform to broadcast and expand Hitler’s reach in communicating with the people. His brash, anti-establishment stances garner a lot of support and applause. Youtubers create endless videos promoting Hitler’s words chasing after the high views and positive reception he garners. When footage of Hitler shooting the dog leaks, Hitler is only briefly waylaid. He’s fired from MyTV with the executive who never supported him taking over. Sawatzki takes Hitler in and Hitler turns to writing a book about his life and experiences while in modern Germany.

Mein Kaumpf 2.0 is, unsurprisingly, a hit that garners Sawatzki film rights to shoot the movie version. MyTV, now floundering without the success they had from Hitler, try desperately to get him back (going so far as to recreate the memetic scene from Downfall but showing the social media executive officer as Hitler). It’s only once Hitler meets the grandmother of Sawatzki’s girlfriend that Sawatzki starts to realize what is happening. The grandmother correctly identifies Hitler as who he is (the other characters dismissing it as her dementia) and Hitler himself is simply disappointed to learn that she was Jewish. He leans into his anti-Semitism and, as is unfortunately always the case, Sawatzki only then decides to look into Hitler’s background once someone he cares is hurt. It’s at that point that Sawatzki sees in his own filming that Hitler appeared at the site of his old bunker in a cloud of smoke and realizes that this man is the real article.

The movie, as you can probably predict now, ends on a rather low note. Sawatzki is imprisoned for his mad ravings. Hitler’s movie is a success, owing in part to the attack on him by neo-Nazis who think he’s being disrespectful to their idol. Course, as we saw in prior unscripted segments, real neo-Nazis are rather easily swooned by a strong arm figure and they quickly are wooed over to Hitler’s banner. Hitler takes to a ride around Berlin with his new publicist by his side (the prior disgraced executive of MyTV), ready to announce his intentions to enter the political sphere. As he drives by, the camera dutifully captures each Nazi salute as he passes.

This movie, of course, isn’t saying that modern Germany but one step away from fascism and all its citizens are SS members in disguise awaiting the return of their glorious leader. Of course people think it’s a joke and not real. But the movie is very clear in that regard. Hitler starts off as a joke but the more people spread him and encourage him, it’s a very sudden turn until it stops being funny.

Thus, there is a conversation to be had about making comedy pieces about Hitler, Nazis and fascism. Charlie Chaplin famously said he would have never created The Great Dictator had he known about the concentration camps. I think Er ist wieder da rather straddles the line of that debate. It leverages its humour as a criticism against fascism while simultaneously acknowledging that such humour can normalise and assist those it’s meant to stop.

Er ist wieder da is, like a Sacha Baron Cohen piece, a weak test of modern society’s susceptibility to what we all know to be wrong. And, predictably, our society fails even the most rudimentary challenge. This isn’t an indictment of our modern institutions and beliefs. It’s a reminder. Social democracy wasn’t achieved through apathetic passivity. It was a struggle and fight to implement. It will always be a tenuous thing at best, irreparably flawed and prone to collapsing in on itself within the slightest moment of inattentiveness. It requires constant work to maintain.  We must be diligent and stand on guard against those that would do it revocable damage whether intentionally or not.