GeneChing
02-07-2020, 09:15 AM
There’s A Movie About Africans Who Do Kung Fu To Kill Hitler (https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/pkedkm/movie-african-kung-fu-nazi-interview)
We met Sebastian Stein, the creator of the bizarre movie, and found out that the making of the film is just as entertaining as the film itself.
By Aditya Mirchandani
07 February 2020, 2:13am
https://video-images.vice.com/articles/5e0d98d910d270009993153b/lede/1577950874970-AKFN4.jpeg
IMAGE COURTESY OF SEBASTIAN STEIN
This article originally appeared on VICE ASIA.
If you’ve ever been on a night out with friends, gotten absolutely wasted, had a brilliant idea, dismissed it as a drunken pipedream, and then forgotten about it forever, this one’s for you. Sebastien Stein takes an idea from his drunken stupour and runs with it as far as it’ll go… a full-length film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLyheH-sHmeaOigAIRu4H7R-5VVHR19YS6&time_continue=1&v=uwwdwe_2miw
Stein is a German-born, Japan-based producer; he also plays Hitler in the film, aptly titled African Kung Fu Nazis. Whether by blind luck or sheer willpower, Sebastian finishes a watchable, entertaining, spectacle. The adjectives “watchable” and “entertaining” come with a list of conditions though, because this movie is a far cry from your typical Hollywood flick.
Stein teams up with Ghanian blockbuster director Samuel K. Nkansah AKA Ninja-Man and 23-year-old producer Danny Boy AKA Producer-Man to regale audiences with a hypothetical tale of what would’ve happened if Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo managed to evade capture from the allied forces and start a new base of operations in Ghana. It features an all Ghanian and Nigerian cast with the only exceptions being Hitler, played by Stein and Tojo played by Stein’s good friend and frequent collaborator, Yo****o Akimoto.
https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1577951543786-AKFN1.jpeg
VICE spoke to Stein about the film and how the hell he came up with the idea.
You obviously have an unwavering belief in this project. Where did the conviction that this was a story that needed to be told, come from?
It’s so out there I just thought it needed to be done. I mean of course, when I came up with the idea I was kinda drunk. I was thinking about Africa, and Kung Fu, and Nazis and I put it together and I just started laughing. I thought, “Man it would be cool if that actually happened, we could do it like this and make a story like that,” it’d be cool if we could really make it happen but I never thought I would follow through. I didn’t know anybody in Africa, so I had to start from scratch basically. For some reason, I just kept on it and I just wrote the script at some point. I thought it might not be a good idea, but it’s definitely a crazy one.
Was there ever a moment along the production process where maybe you stopped and thought to yourself, maybe this isn't such a good idea?
Every single step honestly. When I first contacted the producer and the director, I thought they were gonna come back to me and say, “What the hell man, what do you want with this kind of crap,” but instead, their answer was, “Oh it’s a lovely script, I’m sure it’s gonna win various awards in Ghana.” I knew then that I had to do it. Another issue we had was the budget. They told me I had to transfer the whole amount of $10,000, which isn’t usually how it works. Usually, you do it after production has wrapped, but Producer-Man told me that I had to pay upfront, so I eventually gave in. I knew it might be a bad idea and that once I gave it to him, there was a possibility that I’d never see it again. They proved me wrong and ended up really taking care of things. Still, every single step from production to post-production was riddled with problems. People wouldn’t show up because they were angry at things like the hotel, or other cast members. Our cars were always breaking down. Once, the owner of one of the filming locations thought we were doing a voodoo ceremony because of the flags, props, and costumes so they threw us out of the location. We were meant to premiere African Kung Fu Nazi in 2018 but due to all these problems and Ninja Man taking such a long time to edit the movie, it led to a year-long delay. Eventually, I ended up having to finish editing it myself.
We know it's 100% satire, but in an age of woke shaming and cancel culture, do you think some people might still take offense to your film, or do you think most people will understand that it's a mockery?
I think everybody that watches either the movie or the documentary, will see immediately that it’s a mockery. I showed my Jewish aunt the movie and she loved it. Everyone in Ghana loves it. I’m from Germany originally and growing up, parents and teachers constantly tell you not to joke about Hitler and the Nazis, and it’s become a taboo. On the other hand, if you look at the Brits, they take the **** out of it! They make movies mocking Hitler and they’re hilarious. I think that’s the right way to deal with it. If you make something taboo and mysterious you give it a lot of power. But if you crap on it, then the mysticism is gone. Especially if you have African guys with swastikas and whiteface, they completely strip the power out of those symbols, because we break down everything those symbols stand for. We’re laughing at it and using it in the exact opposite way that those ideas were intended to be used.
continued next post
We met Sebastian Stein, the creator of the bizarre movie, and found out that the making of the film is just as entertaining as the film itself.
By Aditya Mirchandani
07 February 2020, 2:13am
https://video-images.vice.com/articles/5e0d98d910d270009993153b/lede/1577950874970-AKFN4.jpeg
IMAGE COURTESY OF SEBASTIAN STEIN
This article originally appeared on VICE ASIA.
If you’ve ever been on a night out with friends, gotten absolutely wasted, had a brilliant idea, dismissed it as a drunken pipedream, and then forgotten about it forever, this one’s for you. Sebastien Stein takes an idea from his drunken stupour and runs with it as far as it’ll go… a full-length film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLyheH-sHmeaOigAIRu4H7R-5VVHR19YS6&time_continue=1&v=uwwdwe_2miw
Stein is a German-born, Japan-based producer; he also plays Hitler in the film, aptly titled African Kung Fu Nazis. Whether by blind luck or sheer willpower, Sebastian finishes a watchable, entertaining, spectacle. The adjectives “watchable” and “entertaining” come with a list of conditions though, because this movie is a far cry from your typical Hollywood flick.
Stein teams up with Ghanian blockbuster director Samuel K. Nkansah AKA Ninja-Man and 23-year-old producer Danny Boy AKA Producer-Man to regale audiences with a hypothetical tale of what would’ve happened if Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo managed to evade capture from the allied forces and start a new base of operations in Ghana. It features an all Ghanian and Nigerian cast with the only exceptions being Hitler, played by Stein and Tojo played by Stein’s good friend and frequent collaborator, Yo****o Akimoto.
https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1577951543786-AKFN1.jpeg
VICE spoke to Stein about the film and how the hell he came up with the idea.
You obviously have an unwavering belief in this project. Where did the conviction that this was a story that needed to be told, come from?
It’s so out there I just thought it needed to be done. I mean of course, when I came up with the idea I was kinda drunk. I was thinking about Africa, and Kung Fu, and Nazis and I put it together and I just started laughing. I thought, “Man it would be cool if that actually happened, we could do it like this and make a story like that,” it’d be cool if we could really make it happen but I never thought I would follow through. I didn’t know anybody in Africa, so I had to start from scratch basically. For some reason, I just kept on it and I just wrote the script at some point. I thought it might not be a good idea, but it’s definitely a crazy one.
Was there ever a moment along the production process where maybe you stopped and thought to yourself, maybe this isn't such a good idea?
Every single step honestly. When I first contacted the producer and the director, I thought they were gonna come back to me and say, “What the hell man, what do you want with this kind of crap,” but instead, their answer was, “Oh it’s a lovely script, I’m sure it’s gonna win various awards in Ghana.” I knew then that I had to do it. Another issue we had was the budget. They told me I had to transfer the whole amount of $10,000, which isn’t usually how it works. Usually, you do it after production has wrapped, but Producer-Man told me that I had to pay upfront, so I eventually gave in. I knew it might be a bad idea and that once I gave it to him, there was a possibility that I’d never see it again. They proved me wrong and ended up really taking care of things. Still, every single step from production to post-production was riddled with problems. People wouldn’t show up because they were angry at things like the hotel, or other cast members. Our cars were always breaking down. Once, the owner of one of the filming locations thought we were doing a voodoo ceremony because of the flags, props, and costumes so they threw us out of the location. We were meant to premiere African Kung Fu Nazi in 2018 but due to all these problems and Ninja Man taking such a long time to edit the movie, it led to a year-long delay. Eventually, I ended up having to finish editing it myself.
We know it's 100% satire, but in an age of woke shaming and cancel culture, do you think some people might still take offense to your film, or do you think most people will understand that it's a mockery?
I think everybody that watches either the movie or the documentary, will see immediately that it’s a mockery. I showed my Jewish aunt the movie and she loved it. Everyone in Ghana loves it. I’m from Germany originally and growing up, parents and teachers constantly tell you not to joke about Hitler and the Nazis, and it’s become a taboo. On the other hand, if you look at the Brits, they take the **** out of it! They make movies mocking Hitler and they’re hilarious. I think that’s the right way to deal with it. If you make something taboo and mysterious you give it a lot of power. But if you crap on it, then the mysticism is gone. Especially if you have African guys with swastikas and whiteface, they completely strip the power out of those symbols, because we break down everything those symbols stand for. We’re laughing at it and using it in the exact opposite way that those ideas were intended to be used.
continued next post