What if the Nazis had never been defeated, but instead had escaped in 1945 and set up a colony on the dark side of moon, spending the intervening years plotting their revenge and plan for total world domination. Well Iron Sky, the hilariously offensive sci-fi adventure from Finnish director Timo Vurensola, starring Julia Dietze, Peta Sergeant and Christopher Kirby, uses this premise to create one of the most stylishly witty and totally off-the-radar films you’re likely to have seen since, well – ever!
Don’t be alarmed by Iron Sky being non-PC. It’s as though the producers thought of every dodgy subject they could – sexism, fetishism, racism, Nazis, – and said hell, lets just throw the lot in and see what happens, resulting in a jaw-achingly hilarious comedy.
Everything, no matter how preposterous, is done with the cast’s tongues so firmly in their cheeks, that it takes on an air of gravity which only adds to the film’s overall fun. From the wonderful spoof of the American president (clearly based on Sarah Palin) given a manic intensity by Stephanie Paul, to goose-stepping Nazi storm troopers in jackboots and gas-masks (lending their sinister appearance a kinky edge) ready to take-over the world in the name of their new Führer, Klaus Adler – played with creepy intensity by prolific German actor Götz Otto – the 93 minute running time zips past in a blur of explosive offensiveness.
Neither is the film afraid to blatantly rip-off other sci-fi classics. The eagle-eyed will recognise nods towards Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), Mars Attacks (1996) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), whilst the interior of the Nazi’s secret moon base looks like a cross between H.R. Giger’s Alien (1979) designs and the German expressionist sets of Metropolis (1927) – which is rather appropriate considering the subject matter. Where other films may have fallen flat with such a potpourri of references to the past, Iron Sky succeeds by continuing to throw caution to the wind and not caring who it winds-up in the process.
That the first city the Nazis decide to attack is New York may appear somewhat clichéd. But let’s face it, who else on earth lay themselves open to ridicule better than the Americans. Their fight back with the Palin’esqu president leading the charge, provides a witty take on what could easily have been reality had 2008 American election gone differently.
Iron Sky is like a motorway pile up – you can’t help stopping to look despite every moral fibre in your body telling you not to.
Cleaver Patterson
Screen & Gone 