Two of the features from the Museum of Fine Arts’ "New Films from Germany" series demonstrate that, rumors to the contrary, the country still has a film industry — and a sense of humor. Thorsten Wettcke’s A Goddamn Job takes some cues from the quasi-heretical Kevin Smith’s Dogma. Echoing Smith’s idiosyncratic theology, Wettcke posits a universe ruled by an Over-Goddess who delegates the dominion of Earth to a demi-god who’s replaced every 1000 years (previous holders include a one-celled organism and a brontosaurus that caused his species to die out). The job’s been held for the last millennium by a chain-smoking 10th-century peasant named Jonathan, and as of New Year’s Eve 2000, he has yet to pick a successor. For lack of a better choice, he selects Niklas (Oliver Korittke), who draws comic books (like Smith’s characters), one of which depicts God on vacation "celebrating with the Teletubbies at a whorehouse." This shaggy-dog story is amiable enough, helped along by inventive characters and a colorful visual sense.

Jobst Oetzmann’s The Loneliness of the Crocodiles, on the other hand, is dark and punctuated by sporadic flashes of bittersweet humor. Günther (Thomas Schmauser, achingly believable) is a withdrawn savant smothered by overprotective parents and a banally evil rural existence. As a child, he took violin lessons amid the carnage of the family butcher shop, and he’s bullied constantly by peers (in one heart-rending scene he’s covered in entrails and pushed into the girls’ bathroom). No wonder he ends up a suicide, and the film centers on his cousin Elias’s efforts to understand his life and death. A Goddamn Job screens on Wednesday and The Loneliness of the Crocodiles on Thursday, both at the Museum of Fine Arts.