A German Jewish comedy? Is this a joke?

Go for Zucker is a contemporary family farce about two very different estranged brothers who are forced to reconcile in order to collect an inheritance from their mother. It would simply be a very entertaining, funny film, if not for the fact that is a German film, made in Berlin, and the family just happens to be Jewish.

Writer/director Dani Levy bills his film as a German Jewish comedy. Levy was born and raised in Switzerland but returned to Berlin, the city his German Jewish mother fled in 1939. He used Berlin as the setting for this contemporary family comedy, a film that employs Jewish humor to poke fun at clich és and stereotypes, issues about reunification and, of course, family foibles. The humor derives as much from the issues of reunification in Germany as from the family farce, where the family just happens to be Jewish. The winner of six Lolas, the German Oscar, Go for Zucker has an irresistible performance by Henry Hubchen in the lead role and the comedy earned praise from Paul Spiegel, chairman of Central Council of Jews in Germany. The film has been a smash hit across Europe, been embraced by both the German Jewish community and Germans generally, played for 14 weeks in Israel and is now making its way to this country.

A big part of the film’s appeal is Henry Hubchen’s Jaecki Zucker, a lovable rascal who charms you into liking him no matter what. “Life’s a game, and I am a born player,” says hard-drinking gambler and pool-player Jaecki. He starts out by telling us he was born Jakob Zuckermann, but says that while that might sound like a Jewish name, he is “not a member of that club.” He used to be a star in East Berlin as a celebrity sportscaster, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall, he has had nothing but bad luck.

Up to his neck in debt, Jaecki feels like he was one of the losers in German reunification. His long-suffering wife, Marlene (Hannelore Elsner), is fed up and is tossing him out of their apartment. He is estranged from his grown daughter, Jana (Anja Franke). When a policeman and his bank manager son, Thomas (Steffen Groth), show up to cart him off to jail for failure to pay his loans, Jaecki pleads for a few more days to pay off the debt. You see, there is this big pool tournament this weekend, and Jaecki has not lost a game he did not want to lose all year. If only he can come up with the entry fee.

Then something unexpected turns everything upside down. His wife Marlene opens a letter from Jaecki’s estranged brother, Samuel (Udo Samel), in Frankfurt, saying that their mother has died, leaving both instructions that she wants a Jewish funeral and burial in Berlin. The brothers will be required to sit shiva with the family and reconcile in order to inherit their mother’s money.

Jaecki has been estranged from his brother and mother, who fled Berlin in 1961 just before the Wall went up, leaving 14-year-old Jaecki behind. He dropped his Jewish identity and embraced communism.

Marlene, who isn’t Jewish and maybe did not know Jaecki is, is determined to convince Jaecki’s semi-Orthodox, capitalist brother that they are an observant Jewish family. She flies into a frenzy of buying books on keeping kosher, a menorah, a mezuzah and other supplies, prompting the shop clerk to reassure her that “it’s never too late to become Jewish.”

The conservative, reserved Samuel Zuckermann finally arrives at the airport, with his wife, Golda (Golda Tencer), their serious, Orthodox son, Joshua (Sebastian Blomberg), and their sexually aggressive, princess daughter, Lilly (Elena Uhlig). The Zuckermanns accept Marlene’s invitation to stay at their apartment, but when they are alone, Golda tells her husband Samuel that the family is as kosher as a pork chop. Still, it appears that Samuel and Golda are interested in the inheritance as well and decide to do what they can to keep up the illusion for Rabbi Ginsberg (Rolf Hoppe), an old friend of their mother who is overseeing the terms of the will.

The farce derives from Jaecki’s attempts to dodge his family and obligation to sit shiva and reconcile with his brother while sneaking off to play in the big weekend pool tournament, which he is sure he can win to pay off his debts by Monday to escape jail.

But along the way, Jaecki reveals his better side, including his long hidden love for his daughter. At first, it is all about the money for all of them, but eventually it is about bringing the family together. Although Jaecki is the film’s central character, all the characters are likable, no matter how different they are.

The German title Alles Auf Zucker can also be translated as All On Zucker, maybe more appropriate for a film about a gambler.

All the contrasts — the prosperous westerner and the economically displaced East Berlin communist, the observant brother and the one who grew up in a secular, socialist world, the child who left with their mother and the one left behind in Berlin — set the stage for the miscommunications essential to farce humor. The film adds another layer of humor by making the free-wheeling, out-to-make-a-buck guy the communist, while his capitalist businessman brother is staid and formal. The film deliberately pokes fun at stereotypes and clich és. At times, the film skates the edge of good taste or controversy but the lovable and sympathetic characters win you over in the end.

Writer/director Dani Levy, who has lived in Berlin since 1980, said getting financing for the film was a hard sell, having to overcome German worries about political correctness and guilt. In notes for the film, Levy said that despite the assumption, many Jewish families returned to Germany after the war but most Germans have never met a Jewish person and have a mix of guilt and avoidance of things Jewish. He thought a contemporary film, especially a comedy, might address some of this by poking fun at stereotypes.