"Ein seltsamer Heiliger" is a German television film from 1995, so this one had its 25th anniversary last year already and probably it is even older until you get here and read this review of mine because, as you can see from the number of votes here on imdb (or lack thereof), this is not a film seen by many anymore because it just is never really shown on television these days. Today was an exception and that had to do with a very special birthday/anniversary, but I will get to that a little later. This film is from reunited Germany already, five years after the Berlin Wall fell, but nonetheless pretty much every person who worked on this project originated (or originates for those still alive) from the former GDR. And many of those had long careers there too, most of all Herbert Köfer. I will get to him a little later, but maybe you can make the connection already with what I said earlier about a special anniversary. This film here runs for approximately 1.5 hours or minimally shorter, but this shows already too that this is not a GDR movie anymore because many of those ran for 75 minutes only, espcially the ones that seemed more like stage plays and this is also true for this one here. Basically filmed stage plays. There is even an audience here, which admittedly did not annoy me as much as with another Köfer film I saw pretty recently. The director here is Hans Knötzsch, typical GDR name, at least the last name. He was already in his 70s at that point, so not a surprise that he is no longer with us. He was a very prolific director in the GDR, but did not manage a successful transition into reunited Germany, so this film is his pretty much only project from the 90s (okay, there is another from 1990 too) and it is also his final credit. Knötzsch was also a very prolific actor and has slightly under 50 projects in acting and directing each and maybe his imdb body of work is not 100% complete, so there could be more. The writer this time was Rudi Strahl. He was in his 60s here, so younger than the director, but still relatively old and this is his final credit as well. Back in the late 1970s, there were two films named "Ein irrer Duft von frischem Heu" ("A crazy smell of fresh hay") and this one here is the sequel to that. Just story-wise though. The actors are completely different, even if some of the actors from the original film are/were still alive. Of course, it's been under 20 years in-between and it's not as if the cast is packed with very old actors.
Speaking of the cast, it's time to let the cat out of the sack as we say here in Germany. Or let the cat out of the bag how English natives say. Of course, this film was on today on the occasion of actor Herbert Köfer's very recent 100th birthday and I hope he will have a few more birthday. He looks like 90 max to be honest and also seems to be relatively mobile. Good for him. He seems to be a likable fella. This means that in this film here he was also 75 years old. He looks a bit different than in the GDR films in which I have seen him in, but not necessarily older or just a little bit. The moustache is less significant and that's mostly it. You cannot see a lot from him here anyway because he wears a pretty big costumes as he is a man of the church in this film. Unfortunately, his screen time here was really limited. Maybe he wanted to take things more slowly given his age (I'm sure he would not have though to live another 25 years), maybe he struggled to get lead roles in reunited Germany, but I think the key reason is simply that, given the sequel, the main character here was too young for him. Pretty ironic such a statement as the character of Mattes was played by Ingolf Gorges and he was in his mid50s back then and died over a decade ago already. He was also in the resistance in the GDR I think from what I have read. Or at least he chose to leave the country and not support the government. Anyway, he is also the one who is referenced in the title, even if the description fits Köfer's character too, but the latter's role is just too small and he has not enough screen time to think it could be him who is "the strange saint". But maybe this term fits Köfer's character even better than the other fella's. As for the rest of the cast, it's a healthy mix of males and females, pretty much the same amount and I cannot say much about them anymore because I am neither familiar with the names nor the faces. Maybe my loss, especially because I did not know Köfer either before this tribute series and he was really big in the GDR. The one thing I already said is that the cast members pretty much all originate from the GDR, so had the GDR still existed in 1995, they probably could have made the exact same version of this film. Which is surely unusual with the struggles East German actors had after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, but the ones here were kinda in their own East German bubble for this project as you could say during the 2020/2021 pandemic mess.
As for the story, I must say this was maybe where the movie was never really on a level to win me over. I think the central actor wasn't too bad, the late one I just mentioned, but that alone was not good enough. The material and story were simply never good enough and surely felt a bit for the sake of it all, which disappointed me a lot on many occasions. Also I sure feel as if Köfer was wasted here a bit. He did fine during the moments and scenes he had, but his screen time was so limited here. Really a pity. At least, he got a lot of applause, which was nice and the only moment I really liked it that there was an audience around. Admittedly, as I stated very early, I did not find it too terrible and the occasions on which we could hear their exaggerated laughter were also not every 30 seconds the way I heard it before. I am not sure if this is a better watch if you have seen the previous film from the 70s still, but I think you should never have to watch one movie to enjoy another in general. A lot in here was linked to politics and religions, a great deal of the comedy. It was relatively harmless though. On some occasions, there is talk about characters being dead, but at least in terms of the one we see in here, it proves untrue quickly. Another character that we do not see suffered a stroke as we found out and this was maybe the biggest moment of laughter when the explanation is that it was a man of religion and it happened when a high-profile politician was there to ask him to confess his sins. The religious man was not Köfer's character, was he? I think not, even if it would explain his absence in the final scene(s).
I think that for me a key issue here was also that this film was really more loud than funny on many occasions, especially when that chubby blond woman was in charge of the funny line delivery. She was not bad and nobody else from the cast was, but with her it was often really more about screaming than everything else and I did not find it/her half as funny as apparently the vast majority of people in the room did. Like they burst into laughter at times with her one-liners and I was mildly amused at best. Maybe it was her approach and also the way she was directed, but I did not think she stood out whatsoever. Then there is also the story of the idea of the protagonist basically having a halo. Must be an invisible one. This was one of Köfer's rare moments as he was there to check out the hale and uses his hand there to get close to the protagonist's head and hair and how he does and also how he reacts when there is nothing were a prime example of how Köfer is also a really good physical actor. Again, pity he was this underused here. The halo story continues and at the end there is also a bit of a light on the title character's head that has the other people think that there is indeed a halo to him. It wasn't even clear if this was actually supposed to be the case or if the light was also just a coincidence in the story. But at that point, I must say I had really stopped caring already and you can also see this from how I am not sure the stroke was linked to Köfer's character. It jad some lengths and was very slow at times although they tried the opposite and keep the audience constantly interested. Without success in my opinion. Or maybe it was much easier to appreciate this one if you were there and watched the play live back in 1995, but for audiences today it does not do a lot and they could have kept it at the previously mentioned 75 minutes that were not uncommon in the GDR.
Alright, this is pretty much it then. Another thing that can be added is that they made some jokes with the names here, but these jokes were nothing new either because they already included them with the one that came before this one here. Like people found it really funny when Petra Dobbertin reveals her character's last name and the the first name Angelika (she is called "Engelchen" / "little angel") was still a good inclusion from the fun perspective, but the last name being the opposite was not too funny, simply because they picked a last name that really nobody has, so it felt all for the sake of it. Another character's name is Himmelsknecht. well, up to you to decide there. I personally found it too exaggerated either and could not get any laughter from me. But still nice to see that the room was basically packed, but then again this was certainly recorded in the area that was the GDR before that and people's interest in these plays does not simply vanish all of a sudden I suppose and they probably did not make ten shows or something, but maybe just this one. So overall, in my opinion I would not call it a success and I think it hasn't aged too well. Nonetheless, good move from the MDR to show it once again because maybe some people who saw it back then still remember and it brings back some nostalgie for them. Besides, the outcome here, even if it is all a bit bland, is way better than all the Degeto films.
Speaking of the cast, it's time to let the cat out of the sack as we say here in Germany. Or let the cat out of the bag how English natives say. Of course, this film was on today on the occasion of actor Herbert Köfer's very recent 100th birthday and I hope he will have a few more birthday. He looks like 90 max to be honest and also seems to be relatively mobile. Good for him. He seems to be a likable fella. This means that in this film here he was also 75 years old. He looks a bit different than in the GDR films in which I have seen him in, but not necessarily older or just a little bit. The moustache is less significant and that's mostly it. You cannot see a lot from him here anyway because he wears a pretty big costumes as he is a man of the church in this film. Unfortunately, his screen time here was really limited. Maybe he wanted to take things more slowly given his age (I'm sure he would not have though to live another 25 years), maybe he struggled to get lead roles in reunited Germany, but I think the key reason is simply that, given the sequel, the main character here was too young for him. Pretty ironic such a statement as the character of Mattes was played by Ingolf Gorges and he was in his mid50s back then and died over a decade ago already. He was also in the resistance in the GDR I think from what I have read. Or at least he chose to leave the country and not support the government. Anyway, he is also the one who is referenced in the title, even if the description fits Köfer's character too, but the latter's role is just too small and he has not enough screen time to think it could be him who is "the strange saint". But maybe this term fits Köfer's character even better than the other fella's. As for the rest of the cast, it's a healthy mix of males and females, pretty much the same amount and I cannot say much about them anymore because I am neither familiar with the names nor the faces. Maybe my loss, especially because I did not know Köfer either before this tribute series and he was really big in the GDR. The one thing I already said is that the cast members pretty much all originate from the GDR, so had the GDR still existed in 1995, they probably could have made the exact same version of this film. Which is surely unusual with the struggles East German actors had after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, but the ones here were kinda in their own East German bubble for this project as you could say during the 2020/2021 pandemic mess.
As for the story, I must say this was maybe where the movie was never really on a level to win me over. I think the central actor wasn't too bad, the late one I just mentioned, but that alone was not good enough. The material and story were simply never good enough and surely felt a bit for the sake of it all, which disappointed me a lot on many occasions. Also I sure feel as if Köfer was wasted here a bit. He did fine during the moments and scenes he had, but his screen time was so limited here. Really a pity. At least, he got a lot of applause, which was nice and the only moment I really liked it that there was an audience around. Admittedly, as I stated very early, I did not find it too terrible and the occasions on which we could hear their exaggerated laughter were also not every 30 seconds the way I heard it before. I am not sure if this is a better watch if you have seen the previous film from the 70s still, but I think you should never have to watch one movie to enjoy another in general. A lot in here was linked to politics and religions, a great deal of the comedy. It was relatively harmless though. On some occasions, there is talk about characters being dead, but at least in terms of the one we see in here, it proves untrue quickly. Another character that we do not see suffered a stroke as we found out and this was maybe the biggest moment of laughter when the explanation is that it was a man of religion and it happened when a high-profile politician was there to ask him to confess his sins. The religious man was not Köfer's character, was he? I think not, even if it would explain his absence in the final scene(s).
I think that for me a key issue here was also that this film was really more loud than funny on many occasions, especially when that chubby blond woman was in charge of the funny line delivery. She was not bad and nobody else from the cast was, but with her it was often really more about screaming than everything else and I did not find it/her half as funny as apparently the vast majority of people in the room did. Like they burst into laughter at times with her one-liners and I was mildly amused at best. Maybe it was her approach and also the way she was directed, but I did not think she stood out whatsoever. Then there is also the story of the idea of the protagonist basically having a halo. Must be an invisible one. This was one of Köfer's rare moments as he was there to check out the hale and uses his hand there to get close to the protagonist's head and hair and how he does and also how he reacts when there is nothing were a prime example of how Köfer is also a really good physical actor. Again, pity he was this underused here. The halo story continues and at the end there is also a bit of a light on the title character's head that has the other people think that there is indeed a halo to him. It wasn't even clear if this was actually supposed to be the case or if the light was also just a coincidence in the story. But at that point, I must say I had really stopped caring already and you can also see this from how I am not sure the stroke was linked to Köfer's character. It jad some lengths and was very slow at times although they tried the opposite and keep the audience constantly interested. Without success in my opinion. Or maybe it was much easier to appreciate this one if you were there and watched the play live back in 1995, but for audiences today it does not do a lot and they could have kept it at the previously mentioned 75 minutes that were not uncommon in the GDR.
Alright, this is pretty much it then. Another thing that can be added is that they made some jokes with the names here, but these jokes were nothing new either because they already included them with the one that came before this one here. Like people found it really funny when Petra Dobbertin reveals her character's last name and the the first name Angelika (she is called "Engelchen" / "little angel") was still a good inclusion from the fun perspective, but the last name being the opposite was not too funny, simply because they picked a last name that really nobody has, so it felt all for the sake of it. Another character's name is Himmelsknecht. well, up to you to decide there. I personally found it too exaggerated either and could not get any laughter from me. But still nice to see that the room was basically packed, but then again this was certainly recorded in the area that was the GDR before that and people's interest in these plays does not simply vanish all of a sudden I suppose and they probably did not make ten shows or something, but maybe just this one. So overall, in my opinion I would not call it a success and I think it hasn't aged too well. Nonetheless, good move from the MDR to show it once again because maybe some people who saw it back then still remember and it brings back some nostalgie for them. Besides, the outcome here, even if it is all a bit bland, is way better than all the Degeto films.