Two days of SpIFF, one day of rest

And so day two of SpIFF 2006 comes to a close. Five films and an equal number of shorts, culminating with a clever little story about a Boy Scout troop titled “Pee Shy” and a German comedy – say that again, comedy – titled “Go for Zucker!”

The 15-minute short is cleverly done, even if it is obvious where it’s going from a point about three minutes in. Let’s just say that every fido has his day, even if that mutt is the son of a pig farmer.

The feature, which Charlie “Jazz With Chas” Schlesinger couldn’t help but laugh while introducing, tells the story of a finagler (gambler, pool player) whose family has just about given up on him. Just as that’s about to happen, though, his mother dies.

Hah-hah, that always kills me.

Seriously, the film’s conceit is that the guy – whose mother had gone to East Berlin with her other son just before the Wall went up – has to reconcile with his brother (to whom he hasn’t talked in decades) or get cut out of the inheritance. Even more, he (and his disgruntled family) has to abide by the strict rules surrounding Jewish ritual involving death.

All this to be done by people who know about as much about the Torah as they do, say, tap-dancing.

Despite the farcical possibilities, “Go for Zucker!” is a fairly tame comedy. Take away the Jewish references and the film is a lot like “Goodbye Lenin!” another film that deals with East-West German reconciliation. Only the jokes in “Goodbye Lenin!” come quicker, work more smoothly and, even in the most absurd circumstances, never seem less than credible.

And now the festival takes Sunday off ( the Super Bowl , with the Seahawks playing, probably making festival officials nervous). It picks up Monday night with two documentaries: the study of idiocy, “The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat and Beers,” followed by a look at the history of Canadian film with the intriguing title of “Weird Sex and Snowshoes.”

Can’t wait. See you then. Go ’Hawks.