Der Räuber Hotzenplotz

The Robber Hotzenplotz

Long, long ago in a small town in southern Germany. Kasperl lives with his grandmother and his friend, Seppel. Life would be so wonderful if that mean robber Hotzenplotz hadn’t stolen grandmother’s new coffee mill – and if Constable Dimpfelmoser wasn’t such a nincompoop. For this reason, Kasperl and Seppel find themselves obliged to take the matter in hand. A trick enables them to track down the peregrinating villain to his hideout. But Hotzenplotz overpowers them.

The crook can’t seem to tell Kasperl from Seppel, but this doesn’t help them one bit right now. The duo are well and truly Hotzenplotz’ prisoners – and he has got big plans for Seppel, who is really Kasperl. For two sacks of “nose-comfort” snuff, he sells his prisoner to the big, bad, potato-addicted magician, Petrosilius Zwackelmann, who is in desperate need of a conscientious but simple-minded slave to peel his potatoes.

Kasperl soon realises that he isn’t the only prisoner in Zwackelmann’s castle. In the cellar he comes across a slimy toad bemoaning its fate. In reality the toad is none other than the lovely fairy Amaryllis, whom Zwackelmann has cursed. Kasperl and the fairy succeed in outwitting Zwackelmann and capturing Hotzenplotz. But the thief manages to escape, and this soon brings certified clairvoyant Portiunkula Schlotterbeck and her secret admirer Dimpfelmoser on the scene…

Source: 56. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (catalogue)