Mein Kampf

In 1910, the young Hitler travels from the deepest Austrian province to Vienna to conquer the whole world as a painter. He rents a room in a men’s home in Leichengasse to await the big day of the entrance examination to the Academy of Fine Arts. He shares the shabby shack, populated by countless workers and vagrants, with two Jews: the windy Bible salesman Schlomo Herzl and the kosher cook Lobkowitz, who claims to be God. sometimes he really performs miracles. The ageless Schlomo wants to write his own book: ‘My Life’ finds little favor here, ‘Mein Kampf’ all the more so. Adolf Hitler is also enthusiastic … The hospitable, philanthropic Schlomo feels responsible for the impetuous Hitler and takes care of him. But for Hitler, whom the ‘Academy of Fine Arts’ rejects for the second time days later, having overestimated his talents beyond measure, a world collapses. And again it is the good Schlomo who rushes to the aid of Hitler, who in his hopelessness is seeking death, at the last second. The behavior of the penniless, increasingly rebellious Hitler, who sinks into the gap between his own delusions of grandeur and his confirmed lack of talent, into hatred and paranoia, becomes increasingly unbearable for Schlomo. Hitler shamelessly takes advantage of Schlomo, who cooks for him, washes for him and even trims his mustache, and on top of that wrests the young Gretchen away from him. Ironically, it is Schlomo, of all people, who recommends that Hitler seek his fortune in politics. He apparently has certain leadership qualities. A short time later, Hitler joined a radical group that was willing to use any means to achieve its ambitious goals. He eventually pushes his way to the top of them.

The film grotesque MY FIGHT, based on Tabori’s fabulous play, which has been performed all over the world, is not a historical reconstruction of Hitler’s Vienna period.

Rather, it is the timeless parable of good serving evil, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.