Meschugge

1998 film

Dani Levy
Maria Schrader

Produced byStefan ArndtMusic byNiki ReiserDistributed by

Jugendfilm
20th Century Fox^[1]

Release date

1998 (1998)

Running time

107 minutesCountryGermanyLanguages

English
German

Meschugge (English title: The Giraffe) is a 1998 German thriller film directed by Dani Levy and set during World War II. The German title roughly translates as "crazy". The English title refers to the nickname of a character who was once in charge of the Treblinka extermination camp. The film features mainly English dialogue, though it features German dialogue as well.

Cast

Maria Schrader as Lena Katz
Lukas Ammann as Eliah Goldberg
Lynn Cohen as Mrs. Fish
Dani Levy as David Fish
David Strathairn as Charles Kaminski
Nicole Heesters as Lena's mother

Reception

Variety gave a mixed review, calling the film "slickly shot" though criticising the plot and dialogue as "ordinary".^[2] The New York Times was much more critical, stating the English dialogue seemed like "badly translated German" and the plots "breathless incoherence [was] matched only by its wild implausibility."^[3]

References

^ Guider, Elizabeth (12 November 1998). "Fox, Jugendfilm team for prod'n, distrib'n". Variety. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
^ Elley, Derek (October 25, 1998). "Review: "The Giraffe"". Variety. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
^ Scott, A.O (February 4, 2000). "The Giraffe (1998)". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2013.