Pünktchen und Anton

This Caroline Link masterpiece deserves to be exported to the USA. Why? It can easily fall into the Kids & Family section in the USA, unlike Astrid Lindgren's films which often pack quite a punch of child nudity (remember Madicken/Madita? Even Pippi Longstocking had to be edited before being brought to the States).

This film was directed by the same gal who filmed the intense/suspenseful "Nirgendwo in Afrika" (Nowhere in Africa); besides, the same main actress of the latter, Juliane Köhler, also appears here as lovely Pünktchen's mother Bettina Pogge. Whereas Nowhere in Africa is not recommended in the USA for all ages (remember Köhler's topless & sex scenes and little Lea Kurka's nude buttocks?), having snatched instead an R rating, Pünktchen & Anton is absolutely safe for everybody; it can easily snatch either a G or a PG rating.

My favorite scene is Anton's own thrilling stunt driving the poor Volkswagen Microbus (risky, right? Kids aren't supposed to drive cars for real, but that didn't even deter Max Felder from performing his own major-league driving stunt). I think that stunt is unique in the cinematographic class (in most movies, children never really get the chance to drive cars during filming, but stunts-men do).