My Friend Raffi!

Small is beautiful and important in this kid feature, in which a big friendship between human and animal is at the very core. Raffi is a hamster and he is eight-year-old Sammy's best friend. The little rodent is really special. Not only can he kick goals with a football but he can also sniff smuggled goods – even better than police dogs. Sammy and Raffi go through thick and thin together but then, all of a sudden, Raffi is gone!

Deep emotional values triumph over market value in this film. If a Hamster's life can be taxated at few Euro, for Sammy the little one is still priceless and no other could ever replace him. That's why he fights for an operation the little animal needs, that is why he goes on dangerous journey to get the missing hamster back. Arend Agthe, respected creator of children film in Germany for decades, is in full form here having co-written the original story with Bettina Kupfer. He is giving a beautiful example that original children films can enthrall and not only franchises can succeed. In a breathless chase with a cat or swimming dangers through the Elbe river as well as in beautiful emotional scenes, Agthe is delivering engaging twists and turns throughout.

The digitial effects are used carefully and with great skill to carry the story along. Moreover, "My Friend Raffi" is a film with deep sense of its place Hamburg – a dangerous city for a little hamster. Sammy, who has no one to help him – as his mother and sister have else to do and his father is far away in Afghanistan on a job – rushes to the big city to find his little friend.

Germany 2015