No Pardon

(Kein Pardon)

A Rialto Film Production
Germany 1992 - 97 min.
Distributed by Tobis
Premiered: 25. 2. 1993
FSK: o.A., f

Cast

Peter Schlönzke   Hape Kerkeling
Heinz Wäscher   Heinz Schenk
Mutter Schlönzke   Elisabeth Volkmann
Oma Schlönzke   Margret Homeyer
Opa Schlönzke   Dirk Dautzenberg
Regisseur Bertram   Kurt Weinzierl
Redakteurin Doris   Maren Kroymann
Ulla   Annett Kruschke
Gudrun von Wölk   Andrea Heuer
Karin   Petra Zieser
Redakteur Walter   Gottfried Vollmer
Hardy Loppman   Dirk Back
etc.

Crew

Director:   Hape Kerkeling
Co-Director:   Hans-Günther Bücking - Angelo Colagrossi
Screenplay:   Hape Kerkeling - Achim Hagemann - Angelo Colagrossi
Director of Photography:   Hans-Günther Bücking
Assistant Director of Photography:   Till Meyer
Editor:   Clarissa Ambach
Assistant Editor:   Eva Lopez Echegoxen
Sound:   Rainer Wiehr
Sound-Assistant:   Alois Unger
Sets:   Christoph Schneider
Costumes:   Anne Hoffmann
Music:   Achim Hagemann
Executive Producer:   Willy Egger
Producer:   Horst Wendlandt

Plot outline

Peter Schlönzke lives with its energetic mother, a whining grandma and grumpy grandfather in the Ruhr Valley. His father left the family early. Family Schlönzke have a Sandwich service, that caters both burials and silver weddings with Liver- or Cheese sandwiches - with cucumbers or without cucumbers. Peter spends the largest part of his childhood in front of the TV. He grew up with "Flipper" and the Nation´s favourite show "Funniness knows boundaries" on Channel 1. The host, Heinz Wäscher, is almost a national hero and Peter doesn't miss one bit of his favourite Hessian babbling idol and the "jolly good fortune rabbit". Mother Schlönzke suspects that her shy son secretly dreams of a career in television, therefore she registers him to a talent competition of the Wäscher-Show. His performance is a disaster, but he makes the acquaintance of the polite sound creator, Ulla. At least she can fix him up with a job as a cable boy. As the fifth wheel on the show biz. vehicle, he becomes acquainted with the behind the scenes of the biz. and must realize disappointedly, that the television dream factory also only cooks with water, and in addition - with rather stood off water! The host turns out to be a boob grabbing smart ass, and the director is a complete moron. But Peter soon gets the opportunity to be the "jolly good fortune rabbit", as he is stuck into the thick and sweaty rabbit costume in order to play the idiot in the show, who is constantly put down by Wäscher. Peter is endlessly disappointed of show business and his former idol Hans Wäscher. He is ready to escape this circus, when all of a sudden he is discovered for the show. Eventually he becomes the new host of the show and sings the title song: "Funniness knows no boundaries, funniness knows no pardon". Peter doesn't suspect at this time that he about to sell his soul to television…