Curveball is an amazingly entertaining movie, scary and silly at the same time. He suggests that not all Secret Service agents are allowed to kill, but many are allowed to do nonsense with disastrous consequences.

Dr. Arndt Wolf (Sebastian Blomberg) worked in the office in the 1990s
Bundesnachrichtendienst (German CIA) and is interested in biological weapons. He feels that Saddam Hussein is making it, and when his colleagues bring him an Iraqi asylum seeker (Dar Salim) who worked as an engineer in a factory, he seems to have struck a golden vein.

Dr. Wolf asks and suggests what he would be interested in while the asylum seeker listens and tries to comply. Gradually, they made up a story about a secret coal factory and trucks that drive constantly so that no one can find them. Wolf passes the information to the boss, who informs the government and all allies. America, Great Britain and Israel are clear – thanks to an expert from Germany, it has been confirmed that Saddam produces biological weapons. And the office is celebrating great success.

But then the Iraqi gave up – he made it all. He just wanted to thank, he longed for a German passport. By the way, Dar Salim gives a nice interpretation here, letting his Iraqi engineer oscillate between the devotion of a good Bernardine and the maximum urination.

He then fires Dr. Wolf and the story seems to end. But one day, a frightened Wolf sees on television that US President George W. Bush still believes in fiction and is preparing for war. Subjectively, he feels responsible and wants to do something about it.

Curveball starts as a realistic retro thriller with lots of gray seats, solid lines and tight glasses with thick rims. Some small excerpts seem dry, but gradually the film is approaching comedy and we find that it is a very ironic film that entertains in absurdity.

Reveals the laws of the bureaucratic and political world: If we say something for a long time, it must be true. When we make a mistake, we pretend it did not happen. The truth can be adapted at any time depending on the political leadership. Officials want to please politicians and a poor asylum seeker wants to thank officials again.

At first, the film is amused by formal quarrels, but only in the second half does the actor duo Blomberg-Salim start full of gas. After his release, the somewhat depressed German meets again a frightened Iraqi, who believes that Saddam’s agents are following him to Germany. Someone goes up to his apartment.

In a perfectly rated conclusion, Curveball looks almost like a hilarious spy parody. No one knows if there are Iraqis, Mossads or CI5 in the Alps. A brave doctor Wolf in his pajamas chases a mysterious vanless van and escapes from the agents in wooden sleighs. We do not know if everything went exactly that way (the creators say yes), but they turned it out quite fun.

Overall rating: 80%

The film will be screened at Das Filmfest, which starts on October 20 in Prague.