Brüderchen und Schwesterchen (2008)

Brother and Sister get a new stepmother and have to watch helplessly as she poisons her husband and takes over the family’s possessions together with her daughter. Brother and Sister are locked in the stable and given only dry bread, escaping their torment only through a daring flight. In the forest, the desperate children’s thirst becomes overwhelming, but the wicked stepmother has cursed every tempting spring: as soon as the children drink from one, they will be transformed into wild animals. After several attempts, Brother can no longer resist and is turned into a fawn. Sister finds a hut and lives there happily for a long time with her “little brother the fawn.” One day, while out hunting, the king discovers the fawn and pursues it to the hut, where he falls in love with Sister. After bringing the two of them to his castle and marrying Sister, she gives birth to a child. But the stepmother’s envy brings fresh calamity. Disguised as a nursemaid, she and her daughter win the young queen’s trust. She lures the queen into a hot steam bath in a secluded room and locks her inside. The queen suffocates and turns into a dove, which flies to the child’s bed at night (“What is my child doing? What is my fawn doing?”). To deceive the king, the stepsister lies in the queen’s bed and pretends to have a contagious illness, keeping her face covered. The unsuspecting king eventually sees through the deception. The two evil women die while fleeing, and Brother and Sister regain their human forms.