Familie verpflichtet

The German film Familie verpflichtet was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Family Commitments (2015). It was directed by Hanno Olderdissen.

The film is a classic comedy farce. Characters are exaggerated, everyone is deceiving someone, and no one in the audience expects anything but a good time. The reason I liked this film was because it was interesting, well-acted, and very funny.

Max von Pufendorf plays David, who is flamboyant, obviously gay, and Jewish. Omar El-Saeidi plays his partner Khaled, who isn't flamboyant, isn't obviously gay, and isn't Jewish. He's a quiet gym teacher, who must pass his final exam before becoming certified. He doesn't demonstrate gay stereotypes. He loves David as much as David loves him, but he can't come out because his father, Aledrissi (Ramin Yazdani) is homophobic.

Aledressi may be homophobic, but he isn't anti-Semitic. He points out that Jews lived together peacefully with Muslims for centuries. David's mother, Lea (portrayed by Maren Kroymann), isn't homophobic, but she's prejudiced against Muslims.

There's a huge supporting cast, including Khaled's (very) heterosexual female principal, Khaled's hostile aunt, and a blocked artist living in the attic of David's art gallery. There's also Sarah (Franziska Brandmeier) a young Jewish art student who is pregnant with David's child. (Don't ask.) Brandmeier's role requires her to be adorable. She's adorable.

We saw Family Commitments in the excellent Little Theatre, as part of ImageOut, the wonderful Rochester LGBT Film Festival. The movie is one of the 22 films that had their East Coast or New York State premiere at ImageOut. It will work well on the small screen. It's worth seeking out and seeing.