Momo and the grey men

A Rialto Film production directed by Johannes Schaaf
West Germany 1985/86 - 104 min.
Distributed by Tobis
Erstausstrahlung: 17. 7. 1986

Cast

Momo   Radost Bokel
Nicola   Mario Adorf
Chef der "Grauen Herren"   Armin Mueller-Stahl
Agent BLW/553 X   Sylvester Groth
Beppo   Leopoldo Trieste
Nino   Ninetto Davoli
Liliana   Concetta Russino
Gigi   Bruno Stori
Fusi   Francesco de Rosa
Frau Daria   Elide Melli
Ettore   Piero Tordi
"Grauer Herr"   Hartmut Kollakowsky
Herr Ende   Michael Ende
Meister Hora   John HusSound

Crew

Director:   Johannes Schaaf
Assistant Director:   Marjan Wajda
Screenplay:   Johannes Schaaf - Rosemarie Fendel - Michael Ende - Marcello Coscia
Director of Photography:   Xaver Schwarzenberger
Director of Photography-Assistenz:   Michael Stoeger - Benedict Neuenfels
Editor:   Amedeo Salfa
Ausstattung und Costumes:   Danilo Donati
Music:   Angelo Branduardi
Productionsüberwachung:   Manfred Heid
Production Manager:   Walter Massi
Executive Producer:   Claudio Mancini
after the novel "Momo" von   Michael Ende
Producer:   Horst Wendlandt

KurzPlot outline

In the ruins of an amphitheatre at the edge of some unknown city, the little orphan girl Momo lives. She has many friends, as she has the gift of listening extraordinarily well. The idyllic life of the little place falls apart when a strange, cigar smoking "grey gentlemen" persuades the people to deposit their lifetime into a "time savings bank". Everyone works like mad now as if they were obsessed. People begin saving their time - but loose their good fortune and friendships. Desperately Momo tries to explain her friends that they are deceived out of their time. Anxiously she is brought to master Hora, the controller and administrator of all human time, by the turtle Kassiopeia. Hora explains Momo the secret of the hour-flowers and the time itself. When Momo returns to her amphitheatre, a year has passed. Everything has changed: It has become a hectic metropolis, where no one has any more time for anybody and anything. Momo is left alone and lives by herself. This is the moment the "grey gentlemen" have waited for...
They fear that Momo will be a serious threat to them so they try to blackmail her: if she wants her friends to be free of their terrible spell, she must lead the time thieves to master Hora, for they want to bring all human time into their possession. Rounded up by the "grey 'gentlemen" master Hora stops the time of the world: Momo and her turtle have exactly one hour time in order for them to find and to destroy the time storage of the "grey gentlemen", since they can't exist without the stolen time. Only with an hour-flower in her hand, Momo makes herself on the way...