Willkommen bei den Hartmanns

I have to admit that I first had reservations regarding this movie. Since the refugee situation in Germany is omnipresent in the media and the public discussion very polarized, one could already even call it intoxicated, I couldn't imagine how a subject like this could be turned into a comedy.

But Simon did an excellent job: he hired a bunch of very well known German actors, most of them actually from Munich, and portrayed the wealthy German society as a whole with the Hartmann family and movie's characters impersonating all the different political opinions and individual personalities. Controversional dinner discussions, resentments in all directions, accidents of all kind are leading to the most hilarious situations…

Politically Simon achieved to place the movie leisurely at the opinional center of the Germany society – a center that unfortunetely gets more and more eroded by the centrifugal forces of a polarized dicussion.

Extremely recommended because it's an extremely good comedy!

Great movie! The characters are funny, like a comedy should be at its best. The best German actors, straight-to-the-point dialogues, beautiful pictures. Hei, a German comedy at this international cinema level, you do not find that often! I've put Hartmann's heart in my heart, with all their spleens and weaknesses, who still hold together when it matters. What else do you want? That the comedy uses a serious refugee fate as a background for the family development, is wonderful. This is the way life is, everyone lives as best he can, and, at best, tries to help others. Simon Verhoeven wrote the script BEFORE the great wave of refugees came to Germany. He has taken a current situation as a hanger for typical family entertainment. And this has turned into a wonderful film that has thrilled over 3 million viewers.

A couple of wealthy Munich inhabitants, Richard and Angelika Hartmann, adopt an African refugee named Diallo for a couple of weeks until the officials decide if he can take permanent asylum in Germany...

Soon they have to check on their own views towards the refugees while Diallo learns that this family has quite some problems on their own, which includes also the Hartmanns adult children and their grandson.

The most successful German movies are usually light comedies, that's no difference here. What I liked about this movie that it covered a broad range of attitudes that Germans have towards the refugee crises, from far-left to far-right ones, things which people in Germany really think or say. There is also a subplot with an islamist among the refugees, or some Pegida-style "enraged citizen" protesters. Also, it covers quite a lot of other issues - estrangement between children and parents, growing old in a society where the job means a lot for the reputation of the individual and so on. It has no less than seven main characters and manages that well. I think it was also the right choice that they wrote the character of Diallo not as a hero character, but a rather normal guy who just fled his country because the one terrible act of violence that happened to his family. Acting-wise, Senta Berger and Heiner Lauterbach come from a different time than the younger actors in the movies and are in my opinion far above them. But, Florian David Fitz, does also a good job in the probably most unthankful role, playing the Hartmann son who is the clichéd manager who has no time for his son. Even Palina Rojinski, who is another ex-video jockey who turned to acting, does a little better than in her former efforts - and she has probably the most complex character, the daughter of the Hartmanns, who tries to escape an stalker, while struggling to finish her studies with 32 years and get a job, making her a kind of disgrace to her father.

Its not a perfect movie, though. The setting is not too unrealistic - its not far fetched that refugees are adopted by German families, it happened sometimes since 2015 and was even advocated by some organizations. But, obviously, in the end reality has to be bent to provide the happy-end. This is too be expected.

I had more qualms with that despite a lot of things were done well, the movie was not hugely funny. The dialogues rely too much on playing around with clichés and tropes, going for easy wins by the audience.

Without spoiling too much, what will this movie say about the refugees in Germany, a country which took 700 000 of them?

Ultimately, it offers a "light conservative" solution: traditional family values will fix things, society and the state set things right. This may be a bit simple, may be part of the happy end, but its what I believe the movie wants to say.

After several waves of refugees from Syria, Germany founded some movies about the circumstances to show positive examples how life can turn. But in my opinion the issue is "too wanted", the movie teaches the audience. Not in a bad way. It's ok to watch it, why not. But it has a smell of artificiality. It was a well-intentioned. I don't know which audience I would recommend it. Maybe for foreigners who want to know some parts of Germany's problems of the refugee-wave in 2015. I think it does not center clear enough on the problems many of the refugees have and why they fled.

A couple of nice gags at the first 15 minutes, followed by the typical German way of making movies: when creating the story the writer must have been Captain Obvious. Please avoid this one and don't waste your time unless you have a real simple mind.