Willkommen bei den Hartmanns

There are several reasons to recommend this comedy. First of all, it is a very entertaining take on topics that are being discussed not only in Germany, but all over Europe: how will the influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East change our society? In this movie, a rich Munich family wants to do more than wave "Refugees welcome"-placards, so they offer a home to one of the refugees. As a plot, this could be rather embarrassing due to political correctness (or lack thereof), but writer and director Simon Verhoeven manages to include all the different views on immigrants without losing track of the comedy for one moment. He has created a set of characters that are likable and well-rounded, and the development of the story, while predictable in the general outline (of course a comedy needs a happy ending), is surprising at every turn and full of funny dialogue which had people laughing out loud in the cinema. Another reason to watch this comedy is the cast. The older generation is being represented by the always wonderful Senta Berger, as well as Heiner Lauterbach, Uwe Ochsenknecht and Ulrike Kriener (yes, those last three together had us laughing in Doris Dörrie's "Männer" in the 1980s), the younger generation containing heartthrobs Florian David Fitz and Elyas M'Barek and a very lovable Palina Rojinski. Refugee Diallo is played by Eric Kabongo, who will hopefully get to play more leading roles in the future! And, thirdly, I very much liked the artful camera work and the well-chosen sets, which made the movie a joy to watch.

I stumbled on this by Netflix recommendations and was a little bored at this time, so I thought: Why not? Overall this film is a light comedy with a solid background. At first I thought this may be part of 'framing', getting the German people to accept the flood of migrants they have experienced over the last years. But there's more to it. I got intrigued after about ten minutes and watched it till the (almost expected) end. The filming and acting was good, it was good entertainment, but with a slightly belly grim on my side (as a German). As a comedy this works well, but I found the educational under streams to be better citizens annoying. We Germans don't need that. I gave a six, though.

This film tells the story of an affluent German family, where each member has issues of their own. The arrival of a refugee turns their world upside down.

I really like this comedy because it is clever, fast paced and really funny. It also takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, such as sadness, jealousy and insecurity. It is also very unusual in the sense that it is politically incorrect many times, and even dares to vocalise the societal anxiety towards current political and societal issues regarding the refugees. I think it is a brilliant film.

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.

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!