Bye Bye Germany

Frankfurt, 1946: David Bermann (Moritz Bliebtreu, Run Lola Run) is determined to make the most of the ravaged postwar era by recruiting some friends from a displaced persons camp to sell linens at inflated prices to unsuspecting Germans. Most of the group have a simple motivation: to raise the money necessary to leave Germany behind and move on to the United States. But David has a secret, and the beautiful American Army investigator Sara Simon (Antje Traue, Man of Steel) is determined to uncover it. Peppered with Yiddish flavor, this picaresque comedy-drama tells the untold story of the Jewish men and woman whose grit allowed them to succeed in postwar Germany against all odds, and ultimately paved the way for reconciliation.

“Tells an unusual story with gusto... the strength of the story and the emotional range of the experiences depicted prevail... The film at heart is an admiring salute to European Jews who chose to stay put, toughing out the painful reminders of the past to reclaim their violated patria. Their postwar lives have largely been overlooked ons creen in favor of their emigrant brethren, giving Bye Bye Germany a narrative freshness.” - David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“A bittersweet Yiddish yarn [and] an entertaining, watchable take on the oppressed-minority-comeback genre... Scored by a jaunty/melancholic klezmer-style soundtrack, this is also a film about guilt – both the passive-aggressive German gentile variety and the Jewish ‘survivor guilt’ so well documented by Italian camp survivor and writer Primo Levi – author of memoir The Truce, which director Francesco Rosi turned into one of the very few other films to chart the lives of Holocaust survivors in the immediate aftermath of their liberation. And, finally, Bye Bye Germany is about life in migrant limbo – communities full of refugees dreaming of elsewhere, in this case America and Palestine, but today just as likely to be Germany itself.” - Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

WORLD PREMIERE - Berlin International Film Festival
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Seattle International Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION - San Francisco Jewish Film Festival