The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada

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Movie
Original title The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1989
length 83 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Konrad Petzold
script Angelika Mihan (scenario)
production DEFA , "Johannisthal" group
music Zdenek John
camera Hans Heinrich
cut Erika Lehmphul
occupation
synchronization

The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada is a DEFA fairy tale film that was directed by Konrad Petzold and premiered in 1989. The film produced by the DEFA studio for feature films is based on the fairy tale The Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm .

action

The kingdom in which Princess Aurinia grows up comes to the aid of the neighboring kingdom of King Ewald, which is attacked by a wild horsemen. Together the two kings succeed in defeating the equestrian people. The rider king kills his wife out of anger and also wants to murder his newborn daughter Liesa when Aurinia's father intervenes. When the baby was rescued, he was hit by an arrow. As he dies, he promises King Ewald that Ewald's son Ivo will marry his daughter Aurinia. Liesa grows up at Aurinia's side at the royal court and, despite the same upbringing, is jealous of Aurinia.

When Princess Aurinia is old enough to marry, she goes with her foster sister Liesa, disguised as a maid - who has cunningly offered to accompany her - and a soldier to the castle of King Ewald in the neighboring kingdom to meet her father's wish according to Prince Ivo marry. Aurinia has with her a cup that fills itself with wine, a cloth with three drops of blood and the faithful horse Falada, which once belonged to her father. Her mother gave her all three miracles.

On the journey Liesa succeeds in taking the goblet, the handkerchief and the horse as well as forcing Aurinia to swap roles. When she arrives at Prince Ivo's court, she pretends to be the bride-to-be. The horse Falada tries to expose the false princess, but is killed. At Liesa's orders, the horse's head is nailed over a gate through which Aurinia, who has been degraded to a goose-girl, has to go every day. Aurinia entrusts her grief to the speaking head. The wedding of Prince Ivo with Liesa is being prepared, but Ewald and Ivo have become suspicious. Liesa turns out to be cold and hard-hearted and Ivo has taken a liking to the graceful Aurinia in the meantime.

Only the shepherd boy Kürdchen brings King Ewald and Prince Ivo the decisive clue and the fraud is uncovered. The fake princess Liesa is punished and the real princess Aurinia is married to Ivo. Falada, in turn, is brought back to life.

background

Falkenstein Castle, in the film the royal castle
Arcade in the Schönfels castle courtyard

The film was based on the fairy tale The Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm. Although the film sticks closely to the literary model, the scenario written by Angelika Mihan differs in details. Aurinia and Liesa are accompanied by an old soldier who ponders war and peace on their trip to King Ewald's castle. In the film adaptation, the simple maid of the fairy tale becomes a princess, whose claim to power is presented in a more understandable way.

The shooting took place at Falkenstein Castle in Saxony-Anhalt . The interior scenes in the castle were filmed at Schönfels Castle near Zwickau . In addition, some scenes were created in the DEFA studio in Babelsberg . The premiere of the film was on January 29, 1989 in the Berlin Colosseum . In February 2002 the film was released on DVD by Icestorm Entertainment .

The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada was the last feature film by director Konrad Petzold. It was also Alexander Höchst's film debut, who played Prince Ivo. In addition to 65 geese, the 14-year-old white stallion "Sturmball" also starred in the film, who portrayed the horse Falada and who had previously worked in numerous DEFA productions.

Reviews

“The well-known Grimm fairy tale in an expanded version tailored to the understanding of today's children, which abandons the cruelty of the original in favor of a more humane interpretation and does not offer punishment and violence as a solution. His serious endeavor to bring child-friendly ideas about war and peace closer to the young audience makes the carefully staged and credibly played film remarkable, ”said the lexicon of international films .

Other critics described the film as a “beautiful and harmonious fairy tale film”, but said that “a little more speed with all the preference for the conventional staging style” would have done the film good.

literature

  • The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada . In: Ingelore König, Dieter Wiedemann, Lothar Wolf (eds.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children . Henschel, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89487-234-9 , pp. 382-384.
  • Frank-Burkhard Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , p. 206.
  • The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada . In: DEFA Foundation (ed.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-032589-2 , pp. 236–241.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Fallada . In: Ingelore König, Dieter Wiedemann, Lothar Wolf (eds.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children . Henschel, Berlin 1996, p. 383.
  2. ↑ The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada . In: DEFA Foundation (ed.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, p. 238.
  3. ↑ The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada . In: DEFA Foundation (ed.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, p. 241.
  4. ↑ The story of the goose princess and her faithful horse Falada. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used