Manitou's Shoe

Watch Manitou's Shoe (Der Schuh des Manitu, 2001) online on iFILM — a gleefully absurd German comedy western written, directed by, and starring Michael Herbig. The film pillories the Karl May Winnetou adventure novels that German audiences grew up with, turning the noble Apache hero into a broad parody and surrounding him with a cast of increasingly ridiculous characters.

Chief Abahachi of the Apaches borrows money from the Shoshone tribe to fund his band's new saloon, only to be immediately swindled by a con man called Santa Maria. With the Shoshones on the warpath and the gold gone, Abahachi and his blood brother Ranger set off across an absurdly reconstituted Wild West to recover it — accompanied by a blue-skinned Native named Winnetou and a chief called Cunning Slug.

The film shattered German box-office records in 2001 and remains one of the most commercially successful domestic productions in German cinema history. The comedy works even without familiarity with the source material: Herbig's timing and the sheer density of running gags carry it on their own. Stream Manitou's Shoe (2001) online on iFILM.