Bye Bye Germany

Bye Bye Germany (German title: Es war einmal in Deutschland...) is a 2017 tragicomedy directed by Sam Garbarski and co-produced by Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. Garbarski wrote the screenplay together with Michel Bergmann, adapting Bergmann's own novels "Die Teilacher" and "Machloikes". Shot in German and running 102 minutes, the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on 10 February 2017.

Set in Frankfurt in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the story follows Holocaust survivor David Bermann and his friends, who go door to door selling linens to scrape together the money they need to emigrate to America as quickly as possible. A clever business scheme seems to solve their problem, but Bermann's real trouble is his past: Sara Simon, a sharp and uncompromising American officer, keeps interrogating him about what he did during the war, even as she finds his charm increasingly hard to resist.

Moritz Bleibtreu stars as David Bermann, with Antje Traue as Sara Simon and Mark Ivanir as Holzmann; the cast also includes Tim Seyfi, Anatole Taubman and Joel Basman. Blending drama with dark comedy, the film had its German television premiere on ZDF on 19 April 2019.