12 mesyatsev. Novaya skazka (2015)

The Lazarev family—husband and wife, their 12-year-old daughter Liza, and her younger brother Kostik—travel to Moravia to celebrate New Year’s in an old Czech castle. After looking around the castle and meeting its inhabitants, Liza is not particularly happy to be there: apart from the food and an exhibition of folk art, there is nothing to do. She is also unhappy to be cut off from the conveniences of modern life, such as television, the internet, and her favorite gadgets. The next day, bored Liza chases a wooden ball in the castle’s throne room and is transported from our time to a fairy-tale world—a magical kingdom whose king is away on a military campaign, leaving Princess Anna to rule in his place, and where people have magical powers. Liza ends up as a dishwasher in the palace. She meets Philip, the resourceful and clever son of a local woodcutter, and learns from him an ancient legend: a hundred years ago, on New Year’s Eve, a young peasant girl brought a basket of snowdrops she had gathered on her stepmother’s orders into the royal throne room. Ever since then, the kingdom has had an annual tradition of presenting snowdrops to the princess on New Year’s Eve, December 31, and only then does the New Year begin. The snowdrops are grown in the royal greenhouse. But this time, the arrival of the New Year is under threat: the treacherous and evil royal adviser Jakob conspires with Martina, the castle’s housekeeper. They plan to destroy all the flowers in the greenhouse, cancel New Year’s, and imprison the princess so that Jakob can become king and Martina can become the court administrator. Using his magic, the villain Jakob stops time on December 31. Now, for the New Year to begin, Liza must repeat the legendary peasant girl’s feat: bring the capricious Princess Anna a bouquet of snowdrops from the winter forest. Only then will the New Year begin, the princess will open the entrance to the ordinary world, and Liza will return to her parents. Liza sets off into the snowy forest, where the 12 magical months will come to her aid.