Product Details

• Actors: Hannelore Elsner, Andreas Herder, Rolf Hoppe, Axel Werner, Udo Samel
• Directors: Dani Levy
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: German (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
• DVD Release Date: September 19, 2006
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000GFLEEA
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,384 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Go for Zucker" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Peppered with wacky spunk and delicate panache! A breath of fresh air from a country ripe with intensity. --Boston Herald

Product Description

Dani Levy's controversial and highly entertaining contemporary farce GO FOR ZUCKER, is one of the first German-Jewish comedy to come out of Germany since World War II. The cultural phenomenon dominated the 2005 German Film Prizes, picking up six Lolas including best picture, best actor (for Henry Hübchen), best direction and best screenplay before hitting theaters in the U.S.

GO FOR ZUCKER stars Henry Hübchen and Udo Samel as two brothers-- Jaeckie Zucker, a hard-living, hustling former East German celebrity sportscaster (Hübchen), and his quasi-Orthodox brother Samuel from the West (Samel). Jaeckie is up to his ears in debt again--facing jail, divorce and general ruin--when word comes that his mother has died, leaving an inheritance. But according to his mother's will, before he can cash in Zucker first must reconcile with his long-estranged brother, who is arriving the next day, family in tow, expecting to sit shiva for seven days. Can the secular Zucker and his non-Jewish wife pass as observant? And will he be able to sneak away to compete in a high-stakes pool tournament? The film also stars leading German actress Hannelore Elsner as Zucker's hard-pressed wife and the Warsaw-based Yiddish diva Golda Tencer as the religious brother's extravagantly pragmatic wife.

Originally slated for television, the film was almost never made because of anxiety over its unapologetically Jewish humor, political incorrectness, and somewhat indelicate plot. Mixing slapstick humor with a jaundiced eye for sharply drawn social satire, the film has sparked animated debate around the globe. Not only has its unique pedigree as a German-Jewish comedy and its portrayal of a comically dysfunctional Jewish family raised eyebrows, but its story about two brothers from opposite sides of the Berlin Wall has proved to be a powerful metaphor for the cultural and social estrangement that Jews and Germans (East and West) have been grappling with since the Holocaust.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but flawed, October 18, 2007

By	Roland Spickermann (Odessa, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The movie has a complicated plot, true, leading to some amusing moments. But there are also some gratuitous elements in the plot which should disturb people. First cousins discover that they know each other already - because they had had an affair years earlier. Most people would be horrified to discover that they were closely related to a lover, but not here. Other cousins - one a nymphomaniac, the other very repressed - predictably link up, even knowing that they are first cousins. Surely these were unnecessary. In any case, it is decidedly NOT for the whole family, as another reviewer suggested.
Its best moments come from the East German family's "Kosher for Dummies"-level cramming to keep up Jewish appearances. Because of this the movie has some minor significance in being the first postwar film in which the directors and the German audience were comfortable with Jewish humor. But if the film were set in France or Chicago instead of Berlin, I doubt we'd be paying much attention to it.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comedy for grown-ups, January 11, 2007

By	Thamar Jaramillo (Chile) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A fantastic comedy, people who loved Billy Wilder will certainly enjoy Go for Zucker. Finally a comedy for grown-ups who can appreciate a good script, something we miss in Hollywood movies. It needs some knowledge of Jewish tradition.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go for Zucker , May 28, 2007

By	H. Wegner (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Funny and heart-warming story of 2 families in Berlin reunited after the collapse of the Berlin wall. Very well done. For the whole family.