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Toni Erdmann is the most surprising comedy at Cannes

Matthew Anderson
Features correspondent
Toni Erdmann from Cannes

German director Maren Ade surprised the Cannes Film Festival with her film Toni Erdmann – a hilarious movie with some serious messages. Matthew Anderson takes a look.

It’s a cliché to say that the Germans have no sense of humour – and with her third feature film, director Maren Ade has shown it’s just not true. Toni Erdmann is a serious contender to take this year’s Palme d’Or.

The film deals with a father-daughter relationship and stars Sandra Hüller as Ines, a sour, workaholic management consultant from on a long-term assignment in Bucharest. The great Austrian stage actor Peter Simonischek plays her father Winfried, who is disturbed by the apparent joylessness of his daughter’s life. He travels to Bucharest where he takes om the character of Toni Erdmann, a self-styled ‘lifestyle coach’ who begins to make some unwelcome appearances in Ines’ life.

BBC Culture’s Matthew Anderson looks at the strange and surprising film that has taken the Cannes Film Festival by storm.

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