I heard from a friend that a lot of his movies are done in Germany, where the government funds them partially as "art".
They explained it as Uwe goes to the government and says, "I HAVE TEH MOST AWESOME IDEA EVAR!" and spins the movie. Government funds it. He makes the movie under budget (i.e. a cheap piece of drivel) and keeps the left overs.
No idea if this is true or not, only how it was explained to me.