Info
Logline
In this second adaptation of a popular series of children’s books, Franz, Gabi, and Eberhard have a tumultuous time trying to catch a thief — and uncover a very different secret in the process.
Do you know what it’s like when a big problem starts out small? Franz, a short kid from Vienna, certainly does. His best friends, Gabi and Eberhard, are always bickering. But Franz likes them both equally and is always caught in the middle. Friendship on separate schedules? That won’t work: dividing up their vacation will just mean less vacation. And as detectives, if they want to catch their utterly strict and altogether suspicious neighbor, Mrs. Berger, in the act of stealing, they’ll simply have to work together. And things do always turn out quite differently than expected.
Recommended for ages 5 and up.
Meet the director
Johannes Schmid
Johannes Schmid studied theater and film, German literature, and art history in Erlangen and Munich. Since 2000, he has been a freelance director in theater and film. After making various short films, he directed his first feature film, BLÖDE MÜTZE!, in 2006. That film premiered at the Berlinale the following year and received several German and international awards. In 2010 he completed his second feature film, the German-Polish co-production WINTERTOCHTER, which earned the German Film Award for best children’s film in 2012. AGNES, a film adaptation of Peter Stamm’s novel of that title, followed in 2015, and GESCHICHTEN VON FRANZ, based on stories by Christine Nöstlinger, marked a return to children’s film in 2022. Johannes Schmid also directs spoken-word and musical theater throughout Europe, including for the Bayerische Staatsschauspiel, the Malmö Stadsteater, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the Salzburg Festival, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Theater Sankt Gallen, the Theater Konstanz, and the Schauburg in Munich. Schmid lives in Munich and Stockholm.