It is 1960 and a lonely cantankerous Polish Holocaust survivor Marek Polsky (played by David Hayman) has taken refuge in a quiet village in Colombia, South America.
The last thing he wants is company, and he is taken aback to find the house next door has been rented to a surly German named Herman Herzog (played by Udo Kier).
There is something suspicious about the new neighbour, and soon Polsky becomes convinced that Herzog is in fact Adolf Hitler, the hated Nazi fuhrer, whose body was never found after his reported suicide in the ruins of Berlin in 1945.
Polsky becomes obsessed with the idea of proving that Herzog is really Hitler.
He searches the library for photos of Hitler and details of his habits and idiosyncrasies. He finds plenty of parallels – like Hitler, Herzog paints landscapes, he’s left-handed, he’s a vegetarian and he’s devoted to his dog Wolfie, as Hitler was to his Blondi.
Polsky breaks into Herzog’s house looking for tell-tale clues and sets up a camera to spy on him.
Eventually he inveigles his way into Herzog’s life, first as a chess opponent and then, to his surprise, as a friend.
Despite all, he cannot convince the intelligence chief at the Israeli consulate that Herzog is in fact the former Nazi chief.
The film is an odd mixture of suspense and comedy, with a light-hearted score which keeps the tone from getting too grim.
In the end it is an intriguing story about two old men surviving the past and dealing with what remains for them. Both Harman and Kier are excellent in their roles.
The film was directed by Russian-born Israeli film-maker Leonid Prudovsky, who wrote the script with Dimitry Malinsky.
My Neighbour Adolf is now showing at Luna Leederville.
Watch the trailer…
