Take Me To Your Führer! Iron Sky Premières at Berlinale

This year’s Berlinale Film Festival has started and tonight sees the premiere of Iron Sky, an independently produced dark, sci-fi comedy. It has been made by Energia Productions under the direction of Timo Vuorensola, the Finnish filmakers that made the successful science-fiction parody Star Wreck.

Iron Sky’s story begins in the last moment of World War II. German sciencists working on a secret Nazi space programme flee from the Antratic to the dark side of the Moon. They build a base known as the Black Sun; and spend 70 years developing their own technology and a fleet of fighter spacecraft ready to invade the Earth with a “Meteorblitzkrieg” that will see the creation of the Forth Reich.

The makers have gone B-movie when it comes to the plot and script; the humour is unsubtle and won’t win the scriptwriters an Irony Cross [stet] (if such an award existed). However, it is all part of the artistic direction of the film; and the (Rudolf) Diesel-punk look and feel of the Nazi lunar home makes a pleasing cinema aesthetic, which could see this motion picture win an army of kult [stet] fans.

Comic book and sci-fi coventions and cosplay aficiandos could be wearing outfits based on Iron Sky characters for years to come. While it may never surpass the level of devotion the legions of fans Star Wars may have, it could have the kind of cult classic status gained by the Blues Brothers movie.

Which leads The Toy Detective to believe that Iron Sky is an ideal candidate for a series of action figures, replica movie props and other such toys. Not for toy aisles of your local Tesco, more for the toy section of comic book stores and the dealers of collectible merchandise. I don’t know of any such licensing deals that have been signed; but surely there will be specialist manufacturers that will see the great opportunity this film has created.

It’s true, a film with Nazis running around will inevitably attract some undesirable fans and during the films production more than the occasional Bavarian Ignatius got over-excited with what they saw and proceeded to use website comment pages to show-off their ignorance. However, this is a comedy and sci-fi flick : so identifying the baddies is not exactly rocket science.

The Toy Detective, himself, particularly looks forward to hearing the soundtrack by Slovenian industrial band Laibach (whom have had my hears for almost two decades).

Iron Sky opens in cinemas in Finland on 4th April 2012, with a German release on 5th April. Over time selected theatres worldwide will be showing the film.

Iron Sky Movie Poster Iron Sky’s Theatrical Poster