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English Titles H

Help, I am a Boy

Original title: Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge
German title: Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge
Germany, 2001

Director: Dommenget, Oliver
Production company: Studio Hamburg
Co-producers: NDR-TV, BR-TV
Age recommendation: 8 years and up

Synopsis:
11-year-old Emma doesn’t have an easy time of it: her mother always has high hopes for her – which means that everyone at school thinks she’s an awful swot – and to cap it all, her mean swimming instructor is determined by hook or by crook to turn her into an Olympic swimmer.

After having been put through the mill yet again by her beastly classmate, Mickey, Emma prays that night with all her heart that she might be someone else. Suddenly, magically, her wish is fulfilled. However, to her astonishment, she finds herself transformed into none other than Mickey. And what’s more, at the other end of town,Mickey finds out that he has somehow changed into Emma.

And so Emma is now stuck inside the body of a notorious lazybones whilst Mickey finds himself in the body of a girl everyone thinks is a boring goodygoody – an intolerable situation for both of them.Worse still, in three days Emma wants to try and win the swimming championships – but there’s no way she can do it inside Mickey’s body. Distraught, she turns to her classmate “Four-eye”, who has a bit of a psychic bent. After no end of turbulent twists and turns, the three children discover that the body-swap was caused by a mysterious book of spells. The trio set off to find the book’s owner, an ancient-looking man called Albert Tartov, who is the only one who can help return them back to their own bodies.But time’s running out, because the book says that if they don’t manage to swap back into their real bodies within 52 hours they will stay in those bodies forever . . . (Kinderfilmfest Berlin 2002)

Marketing strategies:
Cinema: 47.000 admissions in Gemany.

Festivals:
Berlin 2002 (Children's section), Chicago 2002, Augsburg 2002, Vienna 2002, Graz 2002, Gmunden 2002, Innsbruck 2002, Sandnes 2002, Golden Sparrow Erfurt/Gera 2003, Duesseldorf 2003

World sales address/es:
Telepool / Global Screen (DE)

Sold to:
MFA+-Filmverleih (D)
Fama Film AG (CH)
NDR (DE)
Filmladen (AT)