Emil and the Detectives

Sinopse

Germany during the Weimar Republic: The film begins in the small town of Neustadt, a provincial German town which is the home to young schoolboy Emil Tischbein. His father is dead and his mother raises him alone working as a hairdresser. She sends Emil to Berlin with 140 Reichsmark (a hairdresser's monthly salary then) to give to his grandmother who lives in Berlin with his cousin, the girl Pony Hütchen. He also gets 20 marks for himself. On the way he is very careful not to lose the money and uses a needle to pin it to the lining of his jacket. On the train to Berlin, Emil meets a mysterious passenger who introduces himself as Herr Grundeis. This man gives Emil drugged chocolate and Emil falls asleep. When he wakes up, the money and Herr Grundeis are gone. He spots Herr Grundeis and follows him. Emil dares not call the police, because he made a joke with a local monument, so he feels that he is "a kind of criminal" himself. However, he meets a Berlin boy named Gustav. Gustav tries to help him and assembles local children who call themselves "the detectives".