"Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns" is an East German film for kids and families from 1985, so this one is already almost 35 years old, maybe even older depending on when you read this review. It is based on a novel and that means that really many writers are credited here. One of them is director Jürgen Brauer and he managed also to have a career in Germany after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, mostly in television. Same can be said about Hermann Beyer, who plays the title character's oddjob father. By the way the title character is a girl we have here and her name basically means translated something like Gritta with rats at her home just in case you cared. The actress is Nadja Klier and while she has never acted in a film before or after this movie here and perhaps never will again, she is enjoying a successful career nowadays in film nonetheless working in the camera department on many occasions. Same is true surprisingly about Marc Lubosch, who plays Gritta's childhood crush. Suher Saleh who plays Gritta's dad's new love interest has quickly vanished from the film industry afterwards. Okay, this is the story of a tomboy girl who not only experiences first love, but struggles with her father's offbeat inventions in the most harmless way as we find out by comments like how is she ever gonna find a boy if she constantly has minor injuries. Well, that went quickly then didn't it. And the next boy is already ready to charm her when Gritta (almost called her Britta) is sent to a religious school when there is constant conflict between her and the new woman in the house. But Gritta's father quickly regrets his decision to send her away temporarily while Gritta is on her own new adventure not taking any humiliation from the strictly religious female teachers working there and at the same time discovering a fateful travesty that is going on behind the scenes of the oh so respectable school. At the same time, she is making many new friends. I think it was a good film overall. While East Germany frequently struggled considerably with only coming close to West Germany in terms of the quality of the 2 countries' films, films aimed primarily at children were one of the GDR's biggest strengths. There is a strong history of fairytales from way before the 1980s and here is one of the more recent pretty entertaining films. The movie is worth seeing for how goofy it is, the fantasy components and several other well-handled production values. The rats are cute too by the way and I still wonder why females especially don't like them often, but well it is okay. The minor romance / coming-of-age story with Gritta kissing Peter early on was pretty cute too from the first-love perspective, even if the idea of eating stinging-nettles was not too bright and I also could have done without the rats being able to talk. But these are just minor criticisms. It is a charming film overall and if not Beyer, then the most known cast member is Delmare (rip) wih whom Brauer worked on other occasions too later on I believe. Go watch this one with your kids. GDR does fantasy and succeeds with it.
