Schtonk!

Overview

Schtonk! is a farce of the actual events of 1983, when Germany's Stern magazine published, with great fanfare, 60 volumes of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler – which two weeks later turned out to be entirely fake. Fritz Knobel (based on real-life forger Konrad Kujau) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. When Knobel writes and sells a volume of Hitler's (nonexistent) diaries, he thinks it's just another job. When sleazy journalist Hermann Willié learns of the diaries, however, he quickly realizes their potential value... and Knobel is quickly in over his head. As the pressure builds and Knobel is forced to deliver more and more volumes of the fake diaries, he finds himself acting increasingly like the man whose life he is rewriting. The film is a romping and hilarious satire, poking fun not only at the events and characters involved in the hoax (who are only thinly disguised in the film), but at the discomfort Germany has with its difficult past.

Details

Status

Released

Release date

March 12, 1992

Original language

German

Spoken languages

German

Countries

Germany

Production

WDR,Bavaria Film

Cast

Harald Juhnke,Rosemarie Fendel,Georg Marischka,Günter Junghans,Willy Harlander,Armin Rohde,Martin Feifel,Hans-Joachim Hegewald,Dagmar Manzel,Veronica Ferresand 13 more

Director

Helmut Dietl

Writer

Helmut Dietl,Ulrich Limmer

Producer

Günter Rohrbach,Helmut Dietl

Cinematography

Xaver Schwarzenberger

Music

Konstantin Wecker

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

IMDb

tt0105328