Da wo die Berge sind (2000)

Many years ago, skiing champion Hansi Sandgruber left his quiet village in the Kitzbühel Alps and moved to Vienna, where he opened a restaurant. The reason was a serious crash during a downhill race that left him confined to a hospital bed for a long time and buried his dreams of a future as a skier. Hansi also left his girlfriend Regina behind. His father never forgave him for leaving so suddenly, and his older brother Franz remained just as unforgiving. When Hansi’s father dies unexpectedly after receiving a mysterious letter, then angrily crashes his car and is killed, Hansi returns to his village for the funeral. Though the occasion is a sad one, he also has good news for his mother: after years together, he has finally proposed to his girlfriend Pia, and she has accepted. At the reading of the will, there is a surprise: Father Sandgruber has stipulated that Hansi, not his eldest son Franz, is to inherit the farm and its accompanying wildlife park. Franz swears that he will take revenge on Hansi. However, the notary makes it clear that the farm’s future is uncertain: the elder Sandgruber had once borrowed six million schillings from his friend Perterer to buy the farm. The contract stipulates that if the money is not repaid by a specified deadline, all the land belonging to the wildlife park will pass to Perterer. Old Perterer died before Sandgruber, so the contract passed to his daughter Viktoria as well. Indeed, shortly after the will is read, Viktoria demands 4.5 million schillings, with 500,000 of it due within a very short time. Hansi initially wants to renounce his inheritance, but, persuaded by his uncle Gottfried, decides to fight. He moves back from Vienna to his home village, leaving Pia to run the restaurant in his absence. He sells his vintage car, which enables him to pay the first 500,000 schillings. He does not yet know that Viktoria is counting on the Sandgrubers’ defeat: she wants to build a tourist park called Mountain-Sea-World on the wildlife park grounds, with bathing and ski facilities. At first, the mayor supports her plans, hoping to win votes, but soon rejects her unscrupulous methods. Viktoria then recruits Franz as an ally, and he falls for her. When the Sandgrubers suddenly become a visitor attraction thanks to a kangaroo newly added to the wildlife park, Viktoria has one of their horse stables set on fire. Hansi is not the only one preoccupied by the thought that someone is threatening his family. He suddenly finds himself caught between two women, having run into Regina again in his village. She is now with the German lawyer and stud farm owner Karl-Friedrich, but she still loves Hansi. Viktoria also desires Hansi and shows him her plans for Mountain-Sea-World over dinner together. She offers him herself and a senior position, but he turns down both offers, since Viktoria is partly responsible for his father’s death: in the letter his father received, Viktoria had demanded repayment of the entire sum at once. Hansi knows that the family could not raise the missing money even within the six months they have been granted, but a legends ski race is due to take place in winter, with the winner receiving 200,000 dollars. That sum could save the farm and wildlife park. Hansi decides to enter the race. Gottfried trains him for three months. On the night before the race, at Viktoria’s behest, Franz tampers with Hansi’s skis by shortening the binding screws. However, a few minutes before Hansi’s start, Franz realizes that Viktoria has only been using him, and that she cares less about her project than about taking revenge on Hansi for rejecting her. Franz now tries to save his brother, but he is too late. Because Hansi has taken a spare pair of skis rather than the sabotaged ones, nothing happens to him. Hansi wins the race, and the farm and wildlife park are saved. Gottfried, however, uses the sabotaged skis to ski down into the valley. Franz follows him. Gottfried crashes and is in danger of falling beneath a snow blower, but Franz throws himself in front of him and saves him. Franz is seriously injured but survives. Hansi forgives him. Hansi also amicably separates from Pia and gets back together with Regina. Viktoria, however, is arrested for her actions.