This is a cute little comedy with a brilliant premise: an upshot revolutionary British prime minister (probably a premonition of Tony Blair, who took office the year after the movie was released) disposes the royal family and has them sent back to drab Hannover (they are the House of Hanover, after all), Lower Saxony, Germany. The German government decides to treat them as "late resettlers" (i. e. like ethnic Germans from the territory of the former Soviet Union) and shacks them up with their closest surviving relatives, son (Hape Kerkeling) and mother Bettenberg. The decidedly proletarian Bettenbergs (German for "a pile of beds") are themselves struggling to keep their poxy furniture business afloat, and are none too pleased about having to put up with the snooty Battenbergs, who, despite their fall from grace, still insist on "being served from the left".
German comedy star Hape Kerkeling acts, writes and directs in this venture. It has a workable plot and some great actors who make the most of the somewhat threadbare dialogue and limited budget. Tara Schanzara (mother Bettenburg), Brigitte Mira as Queen Mum (a counter-casting, as Mira usually plays proletarian biddies, which works brilliantly) but also minor roles such as Heinrich Giskes (the local upshot), Ludger Pistor (Prince Charles), Charles Brauer (Prince Philipp) and Katharina Schubert as the ditzy Di are all memorable. This movie was undeservedly rendered obsolete when the real "Lady Di" (Diana Spencer) was killed a year after the release.
A solid, though necessarily dated, comedy which shines through its amazing actors.
