Simon Verhoeven’s Welcome to the Hartmanns becomes the year’s No 1 local-language film in Germany, earning more than $20m at the domestic box office

A comedy about the refugee crisis has become Germany’s biggest homegrown film of the year. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Willkommen bei den Hartmanns (Welcome to the Hartmanns) – which follows a well-to-do woman’s decision to take in an African refugee – has broken the $20m barrier at the German box office. This puts it some distance ahead of the second-placed Der Geilste Tag (The Most Beautiful Day) as the most successful German language film of 2016 at the domestic box office.

Willkommen bei den Hartmanns stars Senta Berger as retired headteacher Angelika and Belgian actor Eric Kabongo as Diallo, the Nigerian she meets in a refugee shelter. Angelika’s decision to offer him a home triggers a series of life-changing events in her family.

The film makes an explicit reference to Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to welcome large numbers of refugees into Germany. Angelika’s husband, resistant to her plans, at one point says: “It’s enough for Frau Merkel to invite the entire third world into our country – we’re not going to do the same in our home as well.”

The film’s director is Simon Verhoeven, Berger’s son with Michael Verhoeven, award-winning director of the 1990 film The Nasty Girl (and no relation to Dutch director Paul Verhoeven).