The six swans (film)

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Movie
Original title The six swans
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2012
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Karola Hattop
script Inès Keerl
production Götz Brandt
Ingelore King
Paul Markurt
music Moritz Denis
Eike Hosenfeld
Tim Stanzel
camera Konstantin Kröning
cut Melanie Werwie
occupation

The six swans is a German television film by Karola Hattop from 2012 based loosely on the fairy tale of the same name . In addition to Sinja Dieks , Julia Jäger and André Kaczmarczyk , Henning Peker and Anton Algrang play the leading roles .

The ZDF production as part of the “ Märchenperlen ” film series was broadcast for the first time on December 26, 2012.

action

The farmer Heinrich has six sons who have nothing but nonsense on their minds. While playing, they accidentally set the courtyard on fire, and even while the fire was being used, Heinrich's pregnant wife went into labor. The difficult birth leads to fear of the worst, and so Heinrich sends his youngest son Benjamin to the lake with the water jug ​​to prepare for an emergency baptism . The other boys do not take the problem seriously, however, they splash around in the lake and toss the jug to each other until it finally breaks. Heinrich is furious because he fears for the child's soul, and curses his sons, they may all disappear from his sight forever. To his horror, the boys are turned into swans and fly away.

Contrary to expectations, the mother dies, little Constanze survives. She grows up safe and happy. It wasn't until her 18th birthday that she found out that she had six brothers. Angry at her father, who kept this from her, Constanze drives across the night lake. On the other bank, the six brothers appear to her, whom Constanze initially takes to be ghosts because they have not aged since that day. They tell her about the curse from their father that lies on them and that will soon turn them into swans again. She also learns that only she can break the curse by being silent for six years and weaving six shirts from nettles . However, if she spoke a single word during this time, it would be like a stab in the back of her heart that would kill her. Then the boys fly away again in the form of swans. Constanze immediately begins to be silent and leaves the court of her repentant father without a word of farewell.

Constanze spent the next few years in seclusion in the woods, sewing the shirts for her brothers. There she is found by Markus, the prince of the kingdom, who takes the supposedly mute girl to the castle. To the displeasure of his mother, the queen, Markus does not allow himself to be dissuaded from marrying Constanze, whom he calls "his fairy" and who, despite her silence, is very close to him. After the wedding, Constanze's father Heinrich shows up at an audience and tries to speak to his daughter. When she runs away, he confides in the queen. This uses her knowledge of Constanze's brothers to torment them; For example, she now prefers to have roast swan served in front of her daughter-in-law. Constanze is now pregnant, but she still sneaks out of the castle at night to collect nettles and turn them into thread, much to the alarm of the servants, who consider their nocturnal activities to be witchcraft . The queen thinks up stories of lies to get rid of the hated daughter-in-law and also lets all the nettles up. When one day the six swans were flying across the courtyard, she asked her son to shoot one of them for her - Constanze, in desperation, threw the prince to the ground.

Markus asks his wife to stop weaving the shirts, but she refuses. At night he follows her outside, where Constanze is visited by her brothers. In the fog the prince takes the swans circling around Constanze for ghosts. When the prince is plagued by a fever the next day, the queen and her court master stir up the rumors about Constanze and her witchcraft. Constanze gets a surprise visit from her father, who despite her resentment wants to help her and gives her medicine for the prince. Markus actually gets well and is reconciled with his wife after their son is born.

The queen and her court master, however, want to get rid of Constanzes for good. You rob her child and make it look like she murdered the baby. Constanze, who cannot defend herself against the allegations because she wants to keep her vow of silence at all costs, is sentenced to death. When the pyre is already in flames, the swans fly across the yard and Constanze throws their shirts on them. Her brothers, transformed back into human beings, save her from the fire. Heinrich arrives at the same time with the unharmed child; he followed the court master into the forest when the latter had taken the child away. Constanze's innocence is proven and the prince disempowers the lie convicted queen, who is chased out of the castle by her subjects together with her court master. Markus becomes the new king and Constanze, finally released from her silence and reconciled with her father, his queen.

production

Locations

The shooting took place mainly at the Geiseltalsee , in the Ziegelrodaer Forst , in the Memleben monastery , in the Querfurt Castle and on the Neuchâtel and Kriebstein Castle .

publication

In addition to December 26, 2012 in Germany, the film was also released in the Netherlands in October 2015 and in Belgium in 2018. Additional title: Märchenperlen - The six swans and Märchenperlen 9 - The six swans .

The film was released on DVD by the FM Kids studio on November 8, 2013 as part of the “Märchenperlen” series.

Fairytale origin

The beginning of the fairy tale comes from Grimm's fairy tale The Seven Ravens , where the father also places a curse on the brothers. However, in that fairy tale the brothers argue about the jug with which they should draw water, in the film, however, the brothers are distracted from the game, only the youngest wants to fetch water.
The fairy tale The Six Swans is in the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm from the 1st edition from 1812 onwards at number 49.
The art fairy tale The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen from 1838 also served as a template, here in particular collecting of nettles in a cemetery area.
In all of these fairy tales, the youngest brother ends up with a swan's wing; this is left out in the film.
The motif of not being able to speak can also be found in Andersen's The Little Mermaid , in which she is rewarded with legs by the sea witch for bartering.

reception

criticism

The critics of the television magazine TV Spielfilm described the six swans as "a little too long, but with a lot of medieval flair and close to the tone of the gloomy Grimm fairy tale".

The lexicon of international films found: "Atmospheric (television) film adaptation of the attractive fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, which tells of two kinds of love and the need for self-sacrifice."

Award

German Film Award 2014

  • Sinja Dieks nominated in the category “Best Young Actress”

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The six swans Fig. DVD case fairy tale pearls (in the picture: Sinja Dieks, André Kaczmarczyk and the actors of the six brothers)
  2. ^ The six swans on TV Spielfilm (with pictures of the film) on tvspielfilm.de; Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  3. ↑ The six swans. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used