Karl May

This ethereal threehour biopic is the middle film in HansJürgen Syberbergs German Trilogy on the mythological foundations of the Third Reich By fusing theater music and cinema Syberberg conjures up Karl May 18421912 the immensely popular German author who set many of his adventure novels in an idealized version of the American Wild West His tales of the cowboy and the Ubermensch alike were beloved by many including Our Hitler who supposedly ordered his generals to read May works after defeats in the Russian campaign