"Man, man, man ...! is what Rico would probably say. Andreas Steinhöfel, author and creator of the famous children's book series about Rico and his friend Oskar, is also enthusiastic about filmfriend! Here he exclusively recommends his favorite titles from the large filmfriend range for children and the whole family. For each of these recommendations, he justifies what makes the film or series so special to him personally.

Andreas Steinhöfel, born in 1962, is a writer, translator and filmmaker. His many award-winning novels for children and young adults include "Paul Vier und die Schröders" (1992), "Es ist ein Elch entsprungen" (1995), "Die Mitte der Welt" (1998), and the book series "Rico und Oskar" (2008-20).

Andreas Steinhöfel says: "Ah, those summers, back then. We see them sketched, in coherent landscape pictures, and rain never fell more beautifully. We are in the here and now, but also in the in-between, that mythical childhood place to which we adults can never return. There Lea makes friends with five boys ... after a spectacular test of courage, which the girl, who remains a bit of an enigma until the end, passes without batting an eye. The film tells Lea's story in an unagitated, almost laconic way - but then something always happens, some of those little things that make a child's life so exciting, so fulfilling. The camera never gets too close to the children, even when it is close to them: The Queen of Niendorf does not betray her protagonists, ever, gang vow! That is one of the many sympathetic strengths of this film."

Andreas Steinhöfel about this series: "Floor is ten years old. That's when the first big philosophical questions are posed to the world. The intellect awakens and a hitherto unknown spirit of resistance arises. The family of the wonderfully laconic title character is correspondingly turbulent - and often hilarious. Sometimes Floor wins an argument, sometimes the parents triumph, sometimes the older brother is victorious. But ... does Floor have to behave this way or that way now, when things could be different? Couldn't Dad have acted completely differently in this particular situation? And was it really consistent the way Mom reacted to the brother? Every question mark creates room for intra-family debates - at least for all those parents and children who watch The Rules of Floor together. And hopefully that's a lot of people, please!"

"When all his tadpole buddies start turning into little frogs, nothing happens to Kuap: just nothing. He is left alone in the pond, in whose cool depths he soon finds himself threatened by all kinds of creepy water creatures. Further up, it's safer. There's a nice water snail, and you can follow the changing seasons with interest. In spring, new tadpole mates scurry through the waters ... and just when you think you're watching one of those pedagogically valuable non-adaptation stories that want to make children believe that it's great to be different from everyone else, even if you permanently feel like crap for it ... just then Kuap makes a mighty leap in development and transforms himself after all. He was merely a late bloomer. And yes: it's totally okay to be different than the others. But it's just as okay to want to be like them," says Andreas Steinhöfel.

Andreas Steinhöfel about the series: "In a small town, older children of different nationalities and ethnicities make friends with each other. Moritz and Rüyet take care of two new arrivals in the town: Aminata and Yassir - one a traumatized asylum seeker, the other a refugee eager to learn - are threatened with deportation. This is all the more so because the brothers of the two belong to a criminal gang of young Germans and migrants. The friendship of the four disparate new friends is put to several hard tests, and there is always this almost paralyzing foreboding: This can't end well! I'm not making the suggestion about Dschermeni entirely altruistically: It's the first series in feature film format that my buddy Klaus Döring and I wrote and produced with our film production company sad ORIGAMI. With success: Dschermeni was nominated for the EMMY Kids in the USA!"

Andreas Steinhöfel writes about the movie: "On a bright blue vacation, eleven-year-old Sam does 'solitary training': separates himself from his family, for two hours, for four, for six. In between, he digs himself a little grave on the sandy beach and lies in it to rehearse. It fits, somehow, and it has to, because Sam knows that at some point he, the youngest in the family, will be the last one left. Tess, on the other hand, is stuck in the middle of being alone. This is the fault of her father, who doesn't even suspect the existence of a daughter. Maybe that's why Tess is a little unpredictable, Sam muses after meeting the girl - unpredictable, manipulative, and actually kind of goofy ... and yet he's attracted to her. Which is good for them, because Sam and Tess learn something important in this wonderfully melancholy and bright film: that when two are alone, they don't have to be doubly alone."

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