NEW YORK

A nearly three-hour German film about a strained relationship between a father and daughter that’s shot through with moments of melancholy and aching despair seems an unlikely contender for the funniest film of the year. But after becoming a sensation at the Cannes film festival last spring, topping year-end critics lists, nabbing a slew of prizes, and scoring an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film, “Toni Erdmann’’ is not only being hailed as one of the year’s most sublime comedies, it’s threatening to overturn the enduring stereotype about humorless German stoicism.

Though director Maren Ade (pronounced MAR-in ah-DAH) acknowledges that she did rewatch 1930s screwball classics like the Katharine Hepburn-headlined “Bringing Up Baby’’ before making her film, she insists that “Toni Erdmann,’’ which opens in Boston on Friday, is “way too slow’’ to be deemed a “screwball comedy,’’ and it’s more layered and strange than your typical farce. It also avoids obvious punchlines and the rhythms of standard-issue Hollywood comedies in favor of extended scenes rich with demented detail and uneasy absurdity.

The film’s central character, Winfried (Peter Simonischek), disguises himself with a ridiculous set of false bucked-teeth, a shaggy fright wig, and tacky, oversize suits while posing as a life coach by the name of Toni Erdmann, who looks like a cross between a sleazy lounge singer and clueless corporate clown. A music teacher and inveterate practical joker, this shambling bohemian travels to Bucharest, Romania, where his high-strung daughter Ines works, and inserts himself into her bourgeois life. He begins showing up unannounced and in character at her job, at her work events, and at dinners with friends, causing all sorts of embarrassment and awkwardness, while Ines’s colleagues puzzle over whether this strange guy is for real.

The ludicrous proceedings include whoopee cushions and wardrobe malfunctions, a hilarious seduction involving petit fours, a team-building brunch in which everyone ends up in their birthday suits, and a character belting out an over-the-top rendition of a Whitney Houston power ballad in front of a roomful of bemused strangers.

In a conversation two days after the movie’s US premiere at the New York Film Festival, Sandra Hüller, who plays Ines, said the actors “were mostly playing it as a tragedy. But the characters are so desperate that they become funny. We never had the feeling that we were doing a comedy.’’

Ade, now 40, reveals that her own father, with whom she has a “normal relationship,’’ shares Toni’s prankster personality and penchant for practical jokes. She once gave him a pair of fake teeth she’d received as a gag gift. “So he then had these little moments where he put these teeth in his mouth when he wanted to sit us down and say something really serious.’’

While Ade’s father was an inspiration, Toni Erdmann was largely fueled by her obsession with the late comic dynamo Andy Kaufman, who played Latka on “Taxi’’ and was known for his absurdist characters, outrageous pranks, and elaborate ruses. She says that Kaufman is not well known in Germany, but she watched many hours of Kaufman clips on YouTube. She came up with the name of Toni Erdmann by drawing on Kaufman’s infamous alter ego, Tony Clifton, an aggressive, sleazy Las Vegas lounge singer with a tendency to insult and alienate his audiences. Like Clifton, Erdmann walks a tightrope between reality and fiction, seeking to exasperate and goad his audience into a response.

“He is playing this comedy for his daughter out of desperation, because they’re in a dead-end relationship and he wants to connect with her,’’ said Ade, whose 2010 film “Everyone Else’’ ruthlessly explored notions of desire and power within the relationship of a young couple.

In writing her script for “Toni Erdmann,’’ Ade explains that she was interested in family dynamics and how parents, children, or siblings can become stuck in the same roles and ritualized habits that they’ve played for years. “Sometimes it’s very hard to change your role, and you have that role no matter if you like it or not,’’ she said. “Because you can change so many things in your life — the way you look, how you live, who your friends are — but you can never change where you come from.’’

Breaking out of those roles and rituals is never easy, but it’s a must in order for family relationships to grow.

“Does there come a point between children and parents where you have to leave the past behind and start a relationship as two adults?’’ Ade wondered. “Because Winfried, he still comes to his relationship with Ines with this longing for it to be like it once was when she was a young girl. But that’s gone. So he takes this step to try and meet her as a stranger by becoming this Toni character. He didn’t know that it would go on so long, but it continues because she doesn’t let him out of the role.’’

The film also grapples with a generational clash and offers a subtle political critique about globalization and European neo-liberalism. As a consultant working in Bucharest, Ines coordinates with companies that want to outsource jobs to lower-wage nations like Romania. Winfried, a bohemian baby boomer, doesn’t hide his displeasure with his daughter’s embrace of the more troubling, inhumane aspects of global capitalism.

“Toni gives Winfried the possibility to be more honest with his daughter,’’ Ade said. “He knows that he should be proud that she has a great job and that she’s so self-determined. But he actually dislikes her work, and she feels that. And so with Toni, he’s able to have a more radical, confrontational communication with her.’’

Ade says that Ines has “lost herself a little bit in all the different roles she has to play’’ as part of her job, and that the strong facade she must project in a male-dominated, corporate work environment begins to fall apart more and more. “On the other hand, Winfried really starts to find himself through this strange performance.’’

When Ines was growing up, “I think he was her hero,’’ Ade added. “Now, through Toni, he’s regaining some of his power again, of actually being the radical guy that he once was. He’s activated something inside of himself, something that he lost.’’

By Christopher Wallenberg | Globe Correspondent

Christopher Wallenberg can be reached at chriswallenberg@ gmail.com.