Fack ju Göhte
Tags: prank, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Bank robber Zeki Müller has just been out of prison. Upon his release, he goes to retrieve the money he stole in order to repay a debt, but his friend buried it in a construction site. During Zeki's time in prison, the construction project was completed and his money is now buried beneath the new gymnasium at the Goethe Gesamtschule. In order to obtain the money, Zeki applies for the vacant position of a deceased janitor. However, due to a misunderstanding, he is given a job as a substitute teacher.
Lisi Schnabelstedt is a student teacher at the Goethe Gesamtschule, her former high school, because she has guardianship over her younger sister, Laura. Lisi does not impose the necessary authority to manage the students successfully.
When Ingrid Leimbach-Knorr, homeroom teacher of class 10B, attempts suicide, the management of the difficult class goes to Lisi Schnabelstedt, although the class's brutal pranks upon the new teacher quickly reduces her to tears. Zeki takes over as the substitute homeroom teacher for Lisi's former seventh grade class. In order to regain his money, Zeki works during the night in the cellar of the school on a tunnel leading to the buried money. He also copies Lisi's diploma because he does not have a high school or college education, which eventually becomes known to Lisi. She then blackmails Zeki, allowing her to get her old seventh grade class back while Zeki assumes responsibility over class 10B.
Zeki is thrown out of his living situation at a strip club, and tries to sleep in Lisi's garage. When discovered, Lisi allows Zeki to live in her basement as long as he properly teaches class 10B instead of watching films every class period.
Through unconventional methods and Lisi's soft leadership, Zeki gains the respect of the class. Although Zeki begins his time as a teacher with draconian methods including shooting students with a paintball gun and holding a student underwater, he eventually takes a softer approach and convinces the students that they do not want to become drug dealers and dependent on welfare by taking them on a field trip to visit Zeki's acquaintances who live this lifestyle. He also becomes more involved in the school by taking over the leadership of the Drama Club, which performs a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, and helping out with the Jugend forscht group. Zeki, concerned about Lisi's image amongst the class, leads the class on an excursion to paint graffiti on a train, during which a student paints the title ‘Fack ju Göhte’. As a result of this increased respect, Lisi passes her practical teaching exam with class 10B. In addition, Zeki arranges an affair for Lisi's little sister Laura with her crush Danger, as well as ensuring Lisi's continued legal guardianship of Laura by pretending to be Lisi's serious boyfriend when Laura's social worker comes to visit. Eventually Zeki finds the money in the tunnel, but the tunnel beneath the gymnasium causes the floor to break and allows Lisi to discover Zeki filling in the tunnel. When Lisi learns about Zeki's past as a criminal, she threatens to call the police if he does not leave his job and her home at once. Zeki, out of options, agrees to drive the get away car for a bank heist. As Zeki's class is about to take their final exam in German, they all take out their motivation photos. A student informs Lisi that Zeki's motivation photo is in his desk. When Lisi opens the desk, she discovers that his motivation for becoming a better person is her. A friend of Zeki's is able to convince Lisi that Zeki wants to change his ways for her.
Zeki doesn't follow through with the heist because three students stop him to ask if he will be their homeroom teacher next year and he sees the train with the ‘Fack ju Göthe’ graffiti. He sends Lisi a dress and an invitation to the prom and reports himself to the school principal. The principal wants to keep him and even hands him a falsified high school diploma with a 2.0 GPA. She informs Zeki that the class 10B has drastically improved and if they continue to work towards their high school diplomas, the school will become the best in the city. Their marks in German, previously 5's and 6's (equivalent to D's and F's), have now become better than 3's (C's).

Review: The film is a social satire based mainly on exaggerated slang and German teenage stereotypes.
As far as I know, FJG was the most successful German movie of the last few years - I can really not understand why this movie is so popular.The plot, or more like the idea behind the plot, was adopted nearly 100% from the 1999 American movie 'Blue streak'; and I'm saying this though I have seen BS only once, and approximately 7 years ago.
The only adjustment was made regarding the context of the protagonist's work place (= the place where his 'treasure' was hidden) - but probably only for the purpose of connecting this idea to the stale and often (like in this case) uninspired genre of high school movies.
Watching the beginning (first ~15 min) of both movies and comparing them would be quite funny.'Funny' is the right keyword: Many people recommended this movie to me because it was "so funny, witty, etc".
Besides there are so many irritating characters (especially among the students).In addition to that, the message of the movie (if there is one; I tried my best to find it) is highly questionable in my opinion: Again this "everyone can reach everything and everyone is something special if you give them attention, bla bla"-bulls.hit.
(This is btw a great example of how the German education system works nowadays)It may also be that I missinterpreted the message, because it may as well be a simple plot mistake that the extremely dumb and annoying girl (hearing her slang and voice was a torment) is considered 'highly gifted' at the end of the movie.
Really?Then there is the f.ucking usual love story according to the f.ucking usual scheme and thus extremely f.ucking predictable.This whole story is so far-fetched, the movie lacks any level and the acting is (apart from Karoline Herfurth and to a lesser extent Elyas M'Barek) between run-off-the-mill and annoying.To sum it up, I have really no f.ucking clue, why anyone would think this movie is at least average or even above.
I think I have to re-consider my friendship to the people that recommended watching it to me.
(just joking, but seriously...) I'd really have to think back to when I waited for the end of a movie this yearningly the last time.P.S.: Farid Bang appeared in this movie - That says it all.
In Germany this was the "hot" autumn movie that everybody liked, the critics as well as the audience.
When I watched it, I did not expect much, thought by the trailers it was stupid, but I have a knack for shitty teenager/school movies.
While looking for the loot of his last robbery, he gets confused as replacement teacher - a great opportunity to take time and slowly dig out his treasure, who is hidden under the schools gym.
He soon gets appointed to the worst class and gets along with a "Dont bother me at all"-attitude; for what he clashes soon with Lisi, a young idealistic teacher and former class mate of his (ad sure, the potential love interest of the movie).
Especially the first half is original since they show Zeki as a kind of guy, who not only does not care for the pupils, but is not afraid to look bad as often in this kind of movies.
Elyas M'barek, Germanys upcoming young male movie star, does a nice and convincing job here, while I did not like him in his former roles.
Its not a really great movie too, because the second half follows the formula totally and leads to the obvious happy end and has the "everybodys' got talent"-message mostly of the movies with troubled teenagers have.
But if you like those type of movies, its worth a look..
Surprising funny school movie.
I didn't watch the trailer before and I thought this could be a boring movie.
one of the worst childish wannabe-cool movies i've seen.
This movie doesn't only have a bad story line, it has even worse acting actors.
I've seen for sure over 1000 movies in my lifetime and I can say this one is in the top 10 of the worst.
I prefer a ueberlow-budged movie which for sure can reach a better quality than this one.
I hope this junk wasn't translated in other languages since there are a lot of other German movies which deserve to be translated first..
550th Review - Fun Comedy, Seen Far Worse.
I can honestly say I have never watched a German comedy before (Excepting Goodbye Lenin), but this was way better than expected.
It's everything Bad Teacher could have been and more.Firstly, it's genuinely funny - petty criminal becomes substitute teacher sounds weak but here the relationships and the script have a lot of zing and deliver.Even though the arc is fairly by the numbers, the plot detailing is excellent, with fresh siutations and a strong romantic subplot.
All in all we liked it a lot - it's fun, consistently funny, has heart, and is definitely one of the better comedies of 2014..
If there ever was a film that made me feel it was geared for being sold up for a Hollywood remake - this was it, what with pseudo-hip-hop slang and American pop-numbers in the soundtrack.
It's okay enough in its own right (just like the main character is okay at being a teacher), but it does look like it's planning on scoring big-time (again, just like the main character).Whether I'm right or wrong about that, we're looking at a German flick that wants to be as edgy as is demanded from European films, but ends up bogged down by cookie-cutter cop-outs, in true American style.
It's at its edgiest in the title itself, then in some scenes that involve teacher-student relations and then in the very premise that the best suited person for being a teacher nowadays is - an ex-con.The ex-con, the central character, gets out of prison and finds out that the money from the robbery he was jailed for ended up buried on the school ground.
The character of Mr. Miller is written as a rude, no-nonsense guy, and many successful jokes stem from that fact.
Also, the dialog is sometimes witty, quite unexpected of them Germans.Bad, unfortunately, outweighs the good just enough to give the effort a mere middle mark.
The rest of the cast is also as mediocre, but in their case that isn't such a problem since their characters are written as predictable clichés anyway and don't have to carry the film.The story itself doesn't squeeze enough out of the premise and goes for clichéd resolutions way too often.
Subplots are underwritten (such as ex-con's relation to his former mates), forced (the love story) or thrown in out of the blue (the theatre play), while one crucial possibility, that the police might also be snooping around trying to recover the loot, is completely forgotten.Clocking at 110 minutes, this is by no means a light feature.
This is the single most outstanding technical problem in "Fack ju, Göhte" - the cuts are often so fast and abrupt they get in the way of the flow and the plot.
Because of that, many scenes never have the time to really sink in, not even the draggy ones, and the comedic potential is thus lost.Also standing out as really bad is ending the story with a typical politically correct "feelgood" closure, where an interesting societal outcast is turned into a castrated and "useful" member of the community.
Comedies will always polarise opinions but this one seems to have gone to the extreme, although in fairness, there are only around 11 reviews at the time of writing mine so perhaps if more people contributed their opinions, we would get a better indication of the overall success of the film.First, I'll discuss the story and how engaging it is: I really liked the leads and the supporting characters were interesting.
It's a fairly predictable plot so I knew what to expect but I always like it when character development and changes in people are done subtly and believably.
No one suddenly makes any huge leaps to become a better person and in fact, people don't do a complete 180 and suddenly change every aspect of their personalities which adds to the realism.This is a very fast-paced, slapstick-style film which injects enough sarcasm and biting one-liners that the 'silly humour' aspect of the direction is easily overlooked.
I would say that the style of the film is similar to that of Clueless (1995) in that people use over-the-top facial expressions and crazy 'goofball' things happen like setting booby traps but the script is extremely witty so it complements the action really well.I imagine that Fack ju Göhte would have been entertaining enough as a straightforward film without any humour however, it is a comedy and in terms of 'how' funny the film is, it would have been useful to me if reviewers had provided some examples of comedies they found funny so that I could compare.
Here are a few comedies or films I found funny:Overt comedies:American Pie, Horrible Bosses, Step Brothers (get past the first ten or fifteen minutes and this one is genius), The Other Guys, 21 Jump Street, Hot Tub Time Machine, Someone Marry Barry, Pineapple Express, Ted, Bad Words, everything Jim Carrey...Films with humour I like:Back to the Future(s), Groundhog Day, The Truman Show, Borat, Meet the Fockers, Juno, The Guard (2011) - The Guard is a must-watch!So those are some examples of films I found funny.
That's not to say I found every joke hilarious but these are films I'd recommend to someone who was looking for a funny film to watch.At this point, I will highlight that I watched the original German film with German subtitles.
I'm not sure how successful comedies are when translated into other languages so it's worth noting this.In my opinion, the fact that Fack ju Göhte is one of the most successful German films in years, speaks for itself.
If you want a very well-conceived German comedy or missed something like that, this is for you movie!
I'm aware that the ending isn't near the reality, but I appreciated it, because most of the German productions seem to try to be very accurate to the law etc.
Yadda yadda, and the old reprobate ends up as a sub teacher in the dysfunctional school with square-but-cute (her nerd glasses barely conceal that she's a smouldering sexual vulcano) colleague Lisi Schnabelstedt, trying to come to grips with his dysfunctional pupils.
In the end, bad boy gets girl, discovers his heart of gold, and becomes teacher with an edge.
Never mind the plot, though, because it's just a vessel for a lot of zany teacher-student-scenes and the übercampy love story.
And since many of the scenes and dialogues with the students are fast and witty, I can benignly pardon the fact that the love affair plot is far more reactionary and clearly less quirky than in the writer-director's previous smash hit "Türkisch für Anfäger" (at one point, Lisi's sassy girlfriend advises her to lose the glasses or she'll never get laid).I ususally don't like Katja Riemann, but she really delivers an outstanding performance here (compared to the lukewarm efforts of M'Barek and Herfurth) as the cynical principal, and Uschi Glass reprises her "Lümmel von der ersten Bank" days as a worn-out teacher..
Movie Review: "Fack ju Göhte" (2013)Since the first two mega-blasts at the German box office with more than 7.5 Million admissions in summer 1985 with "Otto-Der Film" directed by Xavier Schwarzenberger, who had been cinematographer for legendary German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) for mini-series "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), and the Summer-of-2001 releasing "Der Schuh des Manitu" directed and also-acted by Michael Herbig, comes this non-stop menacing young adult comedy of ex-con-man Zeki Müller, portrayed by German shooting star Elyas M'Barek, who together with actress Karoline Herfurth, known for the character of The Plum Girl in Tom Tykwer directed "Perfume: Story of a Murderer" (2006), ignite fireworks as rascaling teachers at a German high-school, bringing order in chaotic, constant trick-or-treat playing classes of teenage-day-dreaming of the ultimate escapology into party or stardom to avoid anything but down-to-earth labor, when this 115-minute-movie produced by Christian Berger based on a uplifting, come-as-you-are attitudes-sharing as well as insights in German society of the juvenile pushing screenplay by also-directing Bora Dagtekin, who then avoids major camera movements for stag-angling visuals under elevator music and comic sound design in digital add-ons of ultra-eye-popping colors in cliché production design interiors through a never-mind plot of a table-dancing-girlfriend-kissing, small-time criminal Zeki turning for a teaching job without any references, but character-ruling, speed-dialing editorial scenes towards a wishfully-happy, minor suspense-given teacher-on-teacher relationship surrounded by faithful school-boys and girls.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend
pretty much the only German film of the 2010s worth watching.
And if you've seen a domestic German film in cinemas, you may have wondered: 'Geez, why are German actors so unfunny and stiff?' The answer to question No. 1 is: The German film industry runs on public funding and collaborations with public broadcasting stations, and the decisions there are made by politically affiliated men (and very few women) in their 60s.
The answer to question No. 2 is: Acting schools are also usually public, teach drama courses geared for the stage, have a curriculum reduced to 18th century dramas and the occasional existentialist play which was hip in the 60s.
Until 'Fack ju Göthe', that is (and apart from a few films by Faith Akın).For this topic-wise not really interesting school comedy, following pretty much a well-trodden formula, not only became the commercially most successful German film of the decade - it's actually funny.
No matter how predictable the underlying social message may be - migrants, believe in yourselves, then you won't end up in jail -, it's not heavy-handed and doesn't kill the jokes.That's because the writers, producers and the director are migrants themselves, and made this movie for an actual audience and not a public funding board.
So not only is the enormous success of 'Fack ju Göthe' well deserved - it feels like a warm shower in an otherwise dreary, pseudo-intellectual German cultural atmosphere.
If you want to watch a contemporary German film to see how people there tick, there isn't any alternative right now.
Just don't expect anything super original or clever, just pretty solid entertainment - if the subtitles get the jokes right, or - better yet - you understand a teensy bit of German..
I am German but I usually don't watch German movies.
It's a clever and funny movie about how German teenagers of the lower social classes are often perceived by Germans.
It plays with all the stereotypes we Germans have about teenagers whose parents are immigrants, on welfare, alcoholics etc.
Not only the language used but also the names of the characters portray this very well - both are a reflection of German reality, not made-up for entertainment.
The film is one of my absolute favourite films, but as some of you have already written here, you have to understand German.
Subtitles just don't work, because the movie mostly uses vulgar expressions and a certain pronunciation that simply can't be translated..
German comedy by the numbers.
And although it was really successful, I don't see any US remake in the future.What I did see though, is a movie that touches a nerve with the youth (in Germany).
A guy who treats women like garbage.
This movie is a lighthearted, unpretentious comedy to be enjoyed as such.
I don't understand why people come on this site and write pretentious criticisms as if this movie were made with winning an Oscar in mind.
I liked the movie for what it is.
Also, it's recommended to have relatively good command of the German language, as some of the humor in this movie is pure speech humor which, some of it, can't be translated (for example the way Chantal speaks)..
Better than most american comedies these days.
Fine german comedy similar to Blue streak with great humor..
Thankfully the writer's intentions of relying completely on vulgar humor and stupid pranks to carry the movie quickly changed for the better.
"Fack ju Göhte" is by the most commercially successful German movie of the year.
So that means, we'll probably get a sequel no later than 2016, even if Elyas M'Barek, who reunited with director Bora Dagtekin from their movie and TV series Türkisch für Anfänger, just stated he's kinda sick of making films.
The only real question open to be answered is if it can beat "Django Unchained" as the most-seen movie in German cinemas 2013.
"Fack Ju Göhte" is by no means a terrible film (although you could probably say that for the first 30-45 minutes which was one of the worst I've seen all year and I've seen many), but it's not even close to the best German films from 2013.
Neither the parts of the lead character's emotional growing up, nor the funny parts, nor the romance parts were something that I would even consider even remotely great.I saw another user compare it to the German classic "Die Lümmel von der ersten bank", but I personally rather thought of "Keinohrhasen".
Not only does Alwara Höfels, who did nothing for me here except drooling and letting everybody in the audience know what a stud M'Barek's character is, play a slightly crasser version of her character in that movie, but the story is essentially the same.
Haase's performance and also the "Romeo&Juliet" play made the development of the problem class the most interesting part of the film for me, more than the romance or Zeki's character development.
Not sure if that was intended though.Anyway, all in all it's an okay movie and even if I'm baffled by its audience numbers, it can make for a good watch if you don't expect something substantial, but just pointless fun.