Der Prinz hinter den sieben Meeren (1982)

The merchant returns home and is joyfully welcomed by his daughter Constanze. She had asked him for a singing, leaping lion lark, and her father has caught the bird for her. The price is high: the lion lark belonged to a lion, who set the condition that the merchant give him the living creature he first encountered at home—Constanze. Her father intends to break his promise, so Constanze secretly goes to the lion that very night. At noon, he transforms into the young Prince Leonhard and asks Constanze to stay with him. She agrees, but fears the prince in the form of a lion, which he assumes every night from midnight until noon. Only after the prince proposes to her and she accepts does he explain the curse upon him. At Leonhard’s birth, a fairy granted his mother a wish. Leonhard does not know what it was, but from the age of sixteen he began turning into a lion. The only clue is a many-leaved medallion, which seems to lose one leaf bearing an inscription each time a condition for lifting the curse is fulfilled. His marriage to Constanze fulfills one condition, and the two have a son, whom they name Leonidas. The next leaf says that Leonhard must not look into a mirror, or he will be unable to touch the earth for seven years. Constanze persuades him to travel to her sister’s wedding. He agrees only reluctantly, and she covers all the mirrors in her parents’ house. However, the Comtessa Annunziata looks into a hand mirror, and Leonhard turns into a dove and flies away. A new leaf from his medallion says that Constanze must follow the dove for seven years. Feathers marked with blood serve as a trail, but Constanze and Leonidas soon lose it. They stay for a few days with a farmer named Thomas, who grows fond of Constanze and her son and offers her a home. Constanze gives him her necklace, hinting that his affection is not entirely unreturned, but she moves on. After seven years, her search ends at the sea. In despair, Constanze asks the moon and the sun for help, and each gives her a gift to open in her greatest hour of need. The North Wind, summoned to help, eventually takes Constanze by raft to an island, where a giant serpent guards Leonhard, who has turned back into a man. Constanze manages to kill the serpent. But Leonhard, who can no longer remember his past, is discovered by the seafaring Comtessa Annunziata, taken aboard her ship, and brought to her castle. Constanze and Leonidas follow them to the palace, but are turned away because of their shabby clothes. In desperation, Constanze opens the sun’s gift and finds a magnificent dress inside. She is then admitted to the Comtessa, who buys the dress from her in exchange for a seat at her evening table. At dinner, Leonhard does not recognize Constanze, and shortly before he turns into a lion, she gives him one of the leaves she has always kept with her. He asks her to come back, since his last leaf had said that only his true love could free him from the curse completely. With the moon’s gift—a valuable diadem—Constanze buys herself a place at the evening gathering the following day. This time, Leonhard recognizes Constanze, and the two fall into each other’s arms. Midnight strikes, but Leonhard does not turn into a lion. The medallion is destroyed and becomes a tree, from which the fairy tells the couple what the mother’s wish was: she wanted her son to be united with a true love. Leonhard and Constanze leave the castle happily, with Leonidas between them.