One of those will be dead by tomorrow...
Die Oma ist tot (English: "Grandma is dead") is a German comedy from the year 1997.
Grandma Vera Kilowska wants to celebrate her birthday with her daughter's family - so she visits them in their German hometown Pinneberg. Everything seems to be great, until the next morning, when Lothar Brömmer goes to look after her and exclaims: "Die Oma ist tot!"Since Grandma wished to be buried in her Polish home village next to her husband, they decide to bring her there. But the prices for transfer are far too high for the family, so they need a really good idea to smuggle Grandma over the border. And so a crazy odyssey begins, with mad fanboys, gold-tooth-crazy border guards and two clever car thiefs...
Die Oma Ist Tot contains examples of:
- Afterlife Welcome: Implied in the very last scene, in which Grandma is seen reunited and drinking together with her husband in heaven.
- The Alcoholic: Grandma Vera is prone to drinking and packs five bottles of booze for the visit in Germany. She starts drinking them on the express bus, sharing generously with the other passengers.
- Birthday Episode: Grandma travels to Germany to celebrate her eightieth birthday with her family. It becomes the day of her death.
- Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: The driving trope of the plot. Grandma wanted to be buried next to her husband in her Polish home village, but her family cannot pay for transportation. So they decide to smuggle her there in a surfboard case.
- Canine Companion: Jonasz, Grandma’s dog.
- Cool Old Lady: Grandma Vera is an elderly Pollyanna, loves good booze and singing, and is altogether very outgoing, friendly and generous.
- Creepy Mortician: Morticians magically start coming up with their offers on the Brömmers' door as soon as Grandma is legally declared dead. And mortician is apparently what the creepy old woman Lothar frequently meets does for a living.
- Death Wail: Linda screams when hearing that Grandma died.
- Died on Their Birthday: Grandma is found dead in her bed in the late morning of her eightieth birthday.
- Due to the Dead: The family feels obliged to fulfil their grandma’s last wishes against all odds due to this trope.
- Ending Memorial Service: The film ends with Grandma’s funeral in her Polish home village, next to her husband, like she wanted it.
- Enfant Terrible: Jan, the Brömmers’ son, who is somewhat sadistic and crazy. He lampshades this when he hears that his grandma died with the words “I didn’t do it.”
- Expy: Selma and Luise, the two car thieves, are expies of Thelma & Louise from the respective American film.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the movie, some of the other passengers of the bus Grandma Vera travels to Germany with are seen carrying a surfboard.
- Germanic Depressives: Lothar Brömmer is an ever-worrying family man.
- Girly Girl: Christina, the Brömmer family’s daughter, who wears a ribbon in her hair and loves her barbie dolls.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: A variation with Linda. When her mother is found dead by her husband, she orders some pieces of cake only for herself and is next seen guzzling them down.
- Mad Scientist: Jan Brömmer is a downplayed version, a kid who likes to do crazy and sadistic experiments.
- Meaningful Funeral: The ending, with Grandma getting her wish and the Brömmer family, the same as friends and neighbors from her village, saying their goodbyes.
- National Stereotypes: Zig-zagged regarding Poland. There are things in the movie that follow the stereotypes, like cheap fakes, very poor villages or Sensual Slavs, but many are defied -when the car with Grandma on top gets stolen, Christina Brömmer is called out for connecting car theft with Poland.
- Peaceful in Death: Grandma looks very peaceful when being found dead.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The main plot is triggered by Grandma being found dead in her bed on the morning of her eightieth birthday.
- Red Herring: When leaving for Germany, Grandma hands her house keys to a neighbor, telling her to keep special care of her jewelry casket. We never learn what is so special about that.
- Running Gag: Someone asking Lothar Brömmer about Gustav-Boddenkamp-Ring, with him telling the person that he never drives the bus there.
- Another one is him frequently meeting the same scary old woman.
- Sensual Slavs: Linda Brömmer (née Kilowska), a Pole by birth, is rather beautiful and always well-dressed.
- Sweet Tooth: Exaggerated. Linda Brömmer is such a cake lover that the local cake bakery allows her to pay less for her cake since she is such a reliable customer.
- Title Drop: When Lothar Brömmer finds out that Grandma has died the previous night in her sleep, he exclaims the title.
