Heidi, is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather. She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara, a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather.
Cinematography
Swiss Alps so gorgeous they should bill therapy.
Acting
Bruno Ganz's grumpy thaw is masterclass minimalism.
Practical Effects
Real goats, real mountains, zero CGI nonsense.
Director
Alain Gsponer
Anuk Steffen
Heidi
Bruno Ganz
Alpöhi
Quirin Agrippi
Geissenpeter
Isabelle Ottmann
Klara Sesemann
Katharina Schüttler
Miss Rottenmeier
Maxim Mehmet
Mr. Sesemann
Hannelore Hoger
Grandmother Sesemann
Jella Haase
Tinette
Anna Schinz
Dete
Peter Lohmeyer
Sebastian
Lilian Naef
Barbel
Monica Gubser
Grandmother
Peter Jecklin
Pastor
Christoph Gaugler
Herdsman
Rebecca Indermaur
Geissenpeterin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This 2015 adaptation restores the novel's darker social critique of 19th-century German class structures that earlier versions softened.
Bruno Ganz filmed this immediately after 'Downfall' and before his 2019 death; his Alpöhi became his warmest late-career role.
DE
