One of the most talked about films at this year’s Berlin Film Festival has to be Finnish sci-fi comedy Iron Sky, reportedly the most expensive film to come out of Finland with a budget of $10 million. $1 million of this was contributed by online fans that had been following the project for years. So is this why everyone is talking about Iron Sky? No, it is not. This is the film that is about space Nazis, yes, that’s right, space Nazis. The ridiculous premise is that in 1945 a group of Nazis escaped to the dark side of the moon and built vast spaceships in order to invade Earth in 2018. The year is now 2018 and these Nazis are indeed going to invade Earth.
Nazis have made quite a recent appearance in film in comedy horror Dead Snow (2009), where they were in fact zombies. A b-movie that didn’t take itself too seriously Dead Snow has a kind of cult status already due to the so bad it’s good concept and the knowing way it is executed and Iron Sky is set to do the same. But is the latter taking itself too seriously? It is a b-movie spoof and quickly establishes that, but with a luxurious budget and some serious marketing does it work?
This is a guilty pleasure of the highest order. The film opens with a nostalgic song with the lyrics “take me to heaven”, a playful element, and some truly stunning visual effects, it appears to be taking itself quite seriously, but as the film goes on we quickly realise the ludicrous level it exists on. The president of the United States has sent a black male model, James Washington (Christopher Kirby) to the moon in order to get re-elected. James stumbles across the Nazi base and quickly becomes embroiled in their plans to invade Earth. James meets Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), a Nazi teacher who specialises in Earth Studies, who quickly loses her outer garments in an amusingly preposterous moment.
Sure the dialogue is appalling and the jokes are crass, but in a sense that is how this film should be, so incredibly bad that it actually becomes good. That said, there aren’t enough genuinely funny jokes and the film loses its way a little, the ending inarticulate for such a frank and obvious film. There are an abundance of explicit political references, the female President of the USA a Sarah Palin clone, which become tedious after a while but there are also some amusing and astute elements, such as the use of Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Renate commenting it is the greatest ‘short film’, only later seeing an unedited version.
Later on in the film we see New York under attack, a notion played out in so many movies, and Iron Sky refers to many of them, some visuals in particular reminiscent of Hollywood blockbusters such as Independence Day (1996). Whilst the film’s storytelling is in b-movie territory the visual effects in some scenes are of a higher level. But these contrast significantly with other scenes of a very low budget standard. The scenes set in the Nazi base are the most distinctive and memorable visually, the film not working as well when it is set on Earth.
Iron Sky does not pretend to be something it is not and however farcical and vulgar it is, it remains fun and watchable. It features some bad-taste but perhaps not as much as expected and Udo Kier feels underused as the Fuhrer. For all its flaws, and there are a lot, I couldn’t help but enjoy this film. It’s inclusion at the Berlinale is bizarre but kudos to the programmers for having a sense of humour. Due to the hype the film is receiving, both good and bad, perhaps this film will make it into the commercial realm. This is a fun and laughable film, whether we are laughing at or with it is questionable.
Director: Timo Vuorensola
Writers: Johanna Sinisalo (original story), Jarmo Puskala (original concept), Michael Kalesniko (screenplay)
Stars: Julia Dietze, Christopher Kirby, Götz Otto and Udo Kier
Runtime: 93 mins
Country: Finland, Germany, Australia
Film Rating: 
