Neue Geschichten vom Franz (2023)

Gabi and Eberhard are the best friends of ten-year-old Franz Fröstl from Vienna. Because the two of them are always arguing, Franz draws up a schedule for the summer holidays in which he only does things with one of them at a time, so the two quarrelsome friends won’t have to run into each other. But when the three of them unexpectedly meet at the public swimming pool anyway, Franz’s friendship with both of them also suffers. After overhearing a conversation between his parents in which they say that a common enemy brings people together and is the strongest bond of friendship, Franz gets an idea. Gabi wants to become a detective and catch a burglar who is operating in the district. Franz thinks his neighbor, Mrs. Berger, is behaving very suspiciously. When her handbag falls, Franz sees strings of pearls inside. There have recently been reports of stolen jewelry. To get Gabi and Eberhard to make up, he brings the two of them together, and the three begin watching people and gathering evidence. Among other things, they follow Mrs. Berger to the Steffl department store, where they record a phone conversation of hers, but are caught by the store detective. Berger had arranged over the phone to hand over the jewelry that evening in a remote warehouse, and the trio follows her there. To their surprise, their teacher Zickzack also turns up and talks about the “Robbery of the Magic Sisters.” Franz wants to go to the police, while Gabi wants to gather evidence first. When Mrs. Berger returns to her apartment, Franz asks her for a glass of water so he can look around. He finds a flyer for the Apollo theater group’s play Die gefesselte Phantasie, in which Berger is performing. When she was a young woman, she wanted to become an actress, but she had severe stage fright and chose a different profession instead. When Franz says he knows what that is like, she gives him tips on what he can do about it. Franz’s mother advises him to tell Gabi and Eberhard the truth about Mrs. Berger. However, his two friends say they are only getting along because of their investigation together. Gabi wants to break into Berger’s apartment to secure what they believe to be stolen goods. To postpone the break-in, Franz eats strawberries, which he is allergic to. Gabi and Eberhard decide to break in without him anyway, while Mrs. Berger is at the hairdresser’s. In Berger’s apartment, Franz finally admits to his friends that he had known all along that the jewelry was only for the theater. Franz accidentally knocks a flower vase down, causing Mrs. Berger to slip and break her leg, and she is taken to hospital. The trio then arranges for the performance to start a little later, so that Mrs. Berger can still sing onstage in a wheelchair. It also turns out that the store detective was the burglar they were looking for.