Synopsis & Film Details
Johanna Spyri’s 1881 classic comes to life in this charming adaptation. Orphaned at a young age, Heidi has been living with her aunt Detie in a town in Switzerland. Having accepted a position in Frankfurt, Germany Aunt Detie drops off five-year-old Heidi with her paternal grandfather who lives in the Alps above the village of Dörfli. Grandfather likes his life of seclusion and resents Heidi’s arrival. Heidi’s intelligence and her cheerful and loving nature, however, win her grandfather’s heart. Heidi quickly grows to love her life in the Swiss Alps, tending the goats with Peter the young goatherd and running free through mountain meadows. When Heidi is 8, Aunt Detie takes her to live in a wealthy household in Frankfurt, Germany to serve as companion to Klara, a sheltered and wheelchair-bound girl. Heidi makes the best of the situation but longs for her grandfather and is homesick for the life she came to love. In German and Swiss-German, with English subtitles.
Director: Alain Gsponer
Germany & Switzerland (2015) • 111 minutes • Not Rated
Distributor: Film Movement
Screening Sponsor: Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature