Rotterdam 2026 Review: NO HIT WONDER Scores Quite A Few Hits

Crack jokes all you want about the concept of German comedy films, but they exists and are often quite good. Case in point: Florian Dietrich's comedy No Hit Wonder, which played at the International Film Festival Rotterdam this year and successfully charmed the audiences, turning into a surprise hit (haha) for the festival.

In the film we follow Daniel Nowak, a singer who had a huge hit ages ago, and has been floating slowly downwards from that moment of fame. The concerts turn into brief appearances, he is turned into a joke, a caricature of himself, opening supermarkets and doing adverts to make a living. One night he is overwhelmed with self-pity and a failed suicide attempt lands him in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. Daniel wants to get out of there as quickly as possible, but that turns out not to be easy.

Nora, who works at the hospital and researches ways of restoring happiness to depressed people, offers Daniel an opportunity: if he helps her with her research project by giving singing lessons to a chorus of depressed patients, he can get out sooner. A very reluctant Daniel accepts, and starts teaching the group how to perform in harmony together. But when word starts spreading through social media that a celebrity is creating a choir of mental patients, the media start getting interested again, both in the choir, and in Daniel...

When you read the synopsis you will have a pretty good idea how the story will go. This is typical feelgood material without surprises. OF COURSE Daniel finds his self-esteem back by teaching people. OF COURSE the depressed patients feel better while singing. OF COURSE they learn too easy and fast. OF COURSE there are hindrances and a sudden tragedy to resolve. OF COURSE that goes way too easy as well. OF COURSE everybody learns important life lessons. OF COURSE something develops between Nora and Daniel.

But what saves the film is a healthy dose of self-awareness, and whenever the story risks becoming cloyingly sentimental there will be a joke, a barb, an acidic piece of sarcasm to jolt you awake. Nora and Daniel are two intelligent people in a constant battle with each other, exchanging brutal truths for the hell of it. Angels they are not, as they also compete in who can manipulate the mental patients best. Director Florian Dietrich and writer Florian David Fitz (who also plays Daniel and who has written Daniel's intentionally annoying hit song) spice the narrative with some very black jokes throughout, and it works wonders for the film's watchability. Both Florians also manage to put some honest emotional scenes in there, and the finale, while expected, hits quite hard. I liked it and was grinning most of the time.

This was an audience favorite at the festival, scoring a 4.4 mean average out of 5.