A mock documentary about Adolf Hitler has been shortlisted to represent Germany at the Oscars next year.

The comedy 'Look Who’s Back' depicts Hitler waking up in modern-day Berlin, becoming a reality TV star and secretly continuing his attempt at world domination.

Based on the bestselling novel by Timur Vermes, it is one of eight films submitted to a jury that will select the entry for the best foreign-language film on August 25, half of which are about the Nazis. They include ‘The People vs. Fritz Bauer’, about the Jewish-German prosecutor and Nazi hunter; and ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’.

When 'Look Who’s Back' was released in October last year, Oliver Masucci, who plays Hitler, toured the country in character to promote the film. He was greeted enthusiastically by a number of the people he encountered; the actor later said he believed that not all of these greetings were ironic.

“Everywhere there were people who were convinced and delighted when our Hitler proposed to them that Germany needs a Führer again who says which way to go,” said the film’s director David Wnendt.

The film received mixed reviews and attracted the attention of extremism experts. “Any humanisation of Hitler and dehumanisation of his victims is dangerous,” said Professor Andreas Zick of Bielefeld University, an expert on right-wing groups.