In 1938 Hans Zeisig, an apolitical comedian, impersonator and cabaret actor, flees with a Russian passport (instead of American, which he would have preferred) from Nazi-Berlin, and finds himself in the legendary Hotel Lux, the 'lost paradise' of the Comintern, in Moscow. Everyone believes that Zeisig is a man named Hansen, Hitler's personal astrologer. But Zeisig quickly realizes that he's gone from the frying pan into the fire. In the Hotel Lux he meets his friends Frida and later Meyer again, still passionate communists. For the three idealists an adventure between love and death begins to run his course.
Acting
Herbig's physical comedy under constant threat of execution.
Production
The Hotel Lux recreates paranoid grandeur with claustrophobic detail.
Writing
Gallows humor that actually understands what it's laughing at.
Director
Leander Haußmann
Michael Herbig
Hans Zeisig
Jürgen Vogel
Siegfried Meyer
Thekla Reuten
Frida von Oorten
Valeriy Grishko
Stalin
Alexander Senderovich
Jeschow
Juraj Kukura
Wassili Ulrich
Thomas Thieme
Georgi Dimitroff
Gennadi Vengerov
Upit
Josef Ostendorf
Mama
Sebastian Blomberg
Karl-Heinz Müller
Sibylle Canonica
Ms. Platten
Axel Wandtke
Walter Ulbricht
Steffi Kühnert
Lotte Kühn
Robert Dölle
Johannes R. Becher
Daniel Wiemer
Herbert Wehner
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hotel Lux was a real Moscow residence for exiled German communists; Brecht, Tucholsky, and Willi Münzenberg all stayed there. Many residents disappeared during the Great Purge.
Director Leander Haußmann is part of the 'Berlin School' tradition, though this film leans into grotesque satire reminiscent of his earlier East German comedy heritage. The real Hans Zeisig was a minor cabaret figure whose actual fate remains unknown—making the film's fictional survival almost hopeful.
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