Draft:Kästner and Little Tuesday

Kästner and Little Tuesday
Original title	Kästner und der kleine Dienstag
Directed by	Wolfgang Murnberger
Screenplay by	Dorothee Schön
Produced by	Isabelle Welter Roswitha Ester Eva Holtmann Danny Krausz Torsten Reglin Kurt Stocker
Starring	Florian David Fitz Nico Kleemann Jascha Baum Hans Löw Inga Busch Katharina Lorenz Martin Brambach Catrin Striebeck
Cinematography	Peter von Haller
Edited by	Claudia Grässel Götz Schmedes Sabine Weber
Music by	Annette Focks
Production companies	Ester Reglin Film Dor Film ARD Degeto WDR ORF Fernsehfonds Austria Filmfonds Wien
Distributed by	UFA GmbH
Running time	98 minutes
Countries	Germany, Austria
Language	German

Kästner and Little Tuesday (German: Kästner und der kleine Dienstag) is a 2016 German biographical drama based on historical facts about the friendship between the author Erich Kästner and a young admirer Hans-Albrecht Löhr. The film portrays life of the sociable and contemporary critical writer, shaped by the political circumstances and the ambivalence between pressure to conform and personal contradiction, against the backdrop of the waning Weimar Republic and the dictatorship of National Socialism in Germany.

Plot

The up-and-coming author Erich Kästner was successful in Berlin's "Golden Twenties" with political poems and became a star of the arts pages. In 1929, on a whim, he wrote the children's book Emil and the Detectives, which won the hearts of a younger readership—a surprise even for him, as he did not see himself as a children's book author. He received an enthusiastic letter from eight-year-old Hans-Albrecht Löhr, who shortly afterwards, even visited him at home and later acted out the book with friends. Kästner was taken by the fatherless boy's enthusiasm, and for Löhr a dream came true when Emil and the Detectives was made into a 1931 film and he was cast in the role of "Little Tuesday".

A close friendship develops between Kästner and Löhr (who sees Kästner as a stand-in father), until, after the Nazis come to power, Kästner's books are banned and publicly burned. Kästner now poses a threat to the boy, who nevertheless clings to the friendship until Kästner breaks off contact of his own accord to protect Löhr, even though he knows this will deeply disappoint him. While many intellectuals emigrate abroad, Kästner stays in Berlin and supports himself with the proceeds from his books sold abroad and with screenplays written under a pseudonym.

After a false report about Kästner's death, the grown-up Löhr seeks out the author again and remains committed to their friendship, as well as to his friend Wolfi, whose father is Jewish, which repeatedly causes Löhr distress. They meet regularly again and talk about the difficult times. During a Gestapo search of his house, Löhr's collection of Kästner's books and letters, including a drawing contemptuous of Nazism, only escapes his downfall because his sister Ruth, a committed National Socialist, spontaneously defends him.

• When hopes for a quick end to the war were not fulfilled after the outbreak of World War II, Löhr was finally drafted into the Wehrmacht, becoming a "senior student in uniform"—something the convinced pacifist Kästner found almost unbearable. Löhr, who shared Kästner's convictions, did not want to go to war either, but was unable to do anything about it. Kästner himself was discharged because of a weak heart. After the suicide of his friend Erich Ohser, the illustrator and caricaturist who became known under the pseudonym E. O. Plauen, while in Gestapo custody , and after his apartment was destroyed by Allied bombing, Kästner finally left Berlin. During a fake filming in Tyrol, he received news of the end of the war from passing Americans - and a letter from Löhr's mother stating that Löhr had been killed on the Eastern Front.

Texts displayed at the end that Kästner never forgot "Little Tuesday" and, through its irreplaceable loss, was able to gauge the millions of deaths Hitler had on his conscience. Of the numerous child actors in the first film adaptation of "Emil and the Detectives," only two survived the war.

Cast

• Florian David Fitz as Erich Kästner
• Nico Kleemann as Hans-Albrecht Löhr (as a child)
• Jascha Baum as Hans-Albrecht Löhr (as a young adult)
• Hans Löw as Erich Ohser: friend of Kästner and German cartoonist under the pseudonym E. O. Plauen, known for his strip Vater und Sohn ("Father and Son")
• Inga Busch as Marigard Ohser: Ohser's wife
• Juls Serger as Wolfi Stern (as a child)
• Oskar Bökelmann as Wolfi Stern (older)
• Charlotte Lorenzen as Ruth Löhr (as a child)
• Saskia Rosendahl as Ruth Löhr (older)
• Katharina Lorenz as Lotte Löhr
• Martin Brambach as Nietenführ
• Catrin Striebeck as Edith Jacobsohn
• Marie Gruber as Ida Kästner: Kästner's mother
• Michele Cuciuffo as Mr. Stern: barber and father of Wolfi
• Daniel Wagner as Eberhard Schmidt
• Nikolaus Barton as Erich Knauf
• Mareile Blendl as bookseller
• Verena Altenberger as Unbekannte Eroberung
• Fanny Krausz as Karlinchen
• Teresa Weißbach as Herti Kirchner
• Dominic Oley as Walter Trier
• Adam Oest as senior educational councilor Waurich
• Arnfried Lerche as teacher Müller
• Raphael von Bargen as Gestapo Officer 1
• [Paul Matić]] as Gestapo Officer 2
• Herbert Schäfer as Roland Freisler
• Christopher Schärf as Gerhard Lamprecht
• Siegfried Walther as neighbor Krüger

Production

Kästner and Little Tuesday was filmed in Vienna in the summer of 2015. The Café Bräunerhof served as the filming location for Kästner's regular café, Carlton, on Nürnberger Platz in Berlin (although it is called Carlston in the film) . The production was supported by the RTR Television Fund and the Vienna Film Fund. The film premiered at the 2016 Munich Film Festival.  The international premiere was the opening film of the 2016 Portland German Film Festival. The television film was first shown on December 21, 2017, on Das Erste and ORF2.

Awards

In 2018, Kästner and Little Tuesday was awarded the Austrian Television Award Romy in the category "Best Book TV Film" and nominated for the category "Best Production TV Film".

At the 50th Austrian Adult Education Television Award, Dorothee Schön (screenplay), Wolfgang Murnberger (director), and Sabine Weber (ORF editorial staff) won the award in the "Television Film" category.

The film was nominated for the Golden Nymph Award in the "Long Fiction Program" category at the 2018 Monte-Carlo Television Festival. Also, Florian David Fitz was a 2018 Golden Nymph Nominee for "Outstanding Actor in a Long Fiction Program" for his role in the film.

Dorothee Schön received the German Television Academy 's Screenwriting Award in 2018.

The film won the 3Sat Audience Award at the 2018 Baden-Baden Television Film Festival.