Pünktchen und Anton (1999)

Luise, nicknamed Pünktchen, and Anton are best friends. While Pünktchen, the daughter of a cardiologist, lives in a villa with a cook and an au pair, Anton shares a small apartment with his sick mother. He has to help out regularly at Giovanni’s ice cream café so that his mother won’t lose her job there while she is ill. Pünktchen has no financial worries, but suffers because her parents are constantly absent. Anton has a good relationship with his mother, but hides from her the fact that he works at the ice cream café for her, and therefore comes to school exhausted and has problems. He doesn’t want her to worry. At a party at the Pogges’ villa, Anton steals a valuable lighter. He tries to sell it so he can use the money to go to the seaside with his mother. When his mother finds the lighter and confronts him, Anton runs away to look for his unknown father in Berlin. Anton’s mother returns the lighter and wants to apologize, but Pünktchen’s mother turns her away. Anton’s aimless ride in Giovanni’s ice cream van ends in a field, and he reconciles with his mother. Pünktchen, who has argued with her parents over the lighter, disguises herself as a street child and sings at night in the Karlsplatz subway station. She gives the money she earns to Anton and his mother. Charly and Ricky, the two school bullies, discover Pünktchen’s secret nighttime activities and sell the information to her parents for 100 marks. They are shocked when they see their daughter singing and dancing in the middle of the night with a homeless man. For the first time, it dawns on them how little they know about their daughter. Carlos, the boyfriend of the Pogges’ au pair, Laurence, steals her house keys at a party so he can break into the Pogges’ villa. Anton happens to witness this, warns Fat Bertha (the family’s cook) over the phone, and calls the police. With the help of a homemade trap and a frying pan, Fat Bertha actually manages to overpower Carlos. Pünktchen’s parents thank Anton and begin to accept the children’s friendship. Pünktchen no longer wants a new au pair, so her parents decide to work less and spend more time with their daughter. Pünktchen’s mother apologizes to Anton’s mother for her behavior and invites her and Anton to her holiday home by the sea. At the end of the film, both families are seen together on the beach. In the epilogue, we learn that Charly and Ricky fought over the 100 marks, and that the money ended up in the hat of the homeless man from the subway station.