Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 27, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Oswald “Ossi” Schneider (Tim Wilde) simply cannot help himself. Barely free,
he is already planning his next coup. But to raid an iron foundry where hundreds of thousands of old Deutschmark coins are just waiting to be saved from death by fire,
he needs help. So Ossi calls on old contacts and, with brothers Axel (Götz Otto) and Bruno (Michael Brander), who scrape by with a
bratwurst stand, and archetypal macho Karl (Stefan Jürgens), he already has
his first accomplices ready.
But it does not end there. Ossi is simply a good-hearted person and, moreover, not particularly discreet. So it does not take long for eleven losers, from a doped athlete to a hated former Stasi man, to come together, and the biggest coup ever staged between Dresden and Dessau can get under way…
Responsible for this somewhat different, profoundly (East) German and, of course, not
serious answer to Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean” trilogy is Oliver Mielke,
who, as a producer, launched ratings-hit formats such as “bullyparade” and “Tramitz and Friends”
and here, alongside producing and co-writing the screenplay, also works for the first time as
the director of a feature film. In doing so, he succeeds in bringing a wonderful acting
ensemble to top form.
The cast includes Tim Wilde (“Der Schuh des Manitu”) as the mischievous, sometimes rather hapless gang leader, Stefan Jürgens (“Harte Jungs”), rising star Jule Ronstedt (“Wer früher stirbt ist länger tot”) as a frustrated cash courier, Bond villain Götz Otto (“Der Morgen stirbt nie”) as a former top East German athlete and doping offender, and pop star Sasha, alias Sascha Schmitz, who now shows his true acting qualities following his brief appearance as a motorcycle rocker in “Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken”.
They and everyone else make OSSI´S ELEVEN an amusing film highlight offering earthy dialogue and imposing prefabricated apartment blocks, but above all deliciously comic characters.
Further Links:
- Film Website