** A KINOFEST opening night party will follow the screening in the lobby! **

Based on the true story. In Germany in 1931, the children’s novel Emil and the Detectives is being filmed, which will make its author, Erich Kästner (Florian David Fritz), world famous. An unusual friendship begins between the childless author and fatherless Hans, the 9-year-old playing the character Little Tuesday from the book. Their friendship is put to the ultimate test when Kästner’s books are banned by the Third Reich and little Hans joins the Hitler Youth.

Emil Erich Kästner (23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children’s books including Emil and the Detectives. Kästner was a pacifist and wrote for children because of his belief in the regenerative powers of youth. He was opposed to the Nazi regime, which burned his books as “contrary to the German spirit” during the book burnings of 10 May 1933. One of his most popular children’s novels Das doppelte Lottchen (Lottie and Lisa) was adapted in the two U.S. versions of The Parent Trap, made in 1961 and 1998.

Opening remarks by the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany for Washington and Montana, Ulrich Fischer.