The 80-minute animated feature film, a German/Luxumbourg/Belgian/Czech coproduction, is in post-production. It is aimed at family audiences and ages 6 - 12, with a scheduled release in October 2019. It has English, German, French and Czech language versions.

The story is based on Hanna Schott‘s book, which describes the political events of the autumn of 1989 in Leipzig as seen by ten-year-old protagonist Fritzi. Fritzi is searching for her friend Sophie in the autumn of 1989. Sophie had asked Fritzi to look after her dog for the summer holidays but instead of returning to school after the holidays, Sophie and her parents immigrated to West Germany and Fritzi doesn’t know how to return the dog to Sophie. Fritzi’s search leads her to the demonstrations which are starting to take place every week and she gets into conflicts with her school. But her bravery and the way history unfolds enable Fritzi to find her friend again.

The film, which will have a 5.5 m EUR budget, received support from the Czech Film Fund and won a screenplay award. It should be completed by mid-July 2019. The production used studios in Poland, China and Germany, and created part of the animation in Zlin.

Production information:

Producers:
Balance Film (Germany)
Trick Studio Lutterbeck (Germany)

Coproducers:
Doghouse Films (Luxembourg)
Artemis Productions (Belgium)
Digital Graphics (Belgium)
MAUR Film (Czech Republic)

Supported by the Czech Film Fund

Credits:
Directors: Ralf Kukula and Matthias Bruhn
Script: Beate Völcker
Art design: Uwe Richter