Der Schatz der weißen Falken (2005)

In the wintry present (2005), Jan, from Düsseldorf, stops at the lonely village cemetery in Heroldsbach and goes with his daughter Lisa to the grave of a man named Peter Laux, who died in 1971. At the graveside, Jan begins telling his daughter the story behind it. Heroldsbach, 1981. Jan is 11 years old. He lives with his friends Basti and Stevie in a housing development of newly built single-family homes in the village. The trio are constantly at odds with the gang led by Marie, a tough, tomboyish farmer’s daughter. The two groups quarrel over all sorts of things kids care about—but above all, over a dilapidated villa that no one has ever entered. Shortly afterward, when Jan learns from his parents that the family will be moving to Düsseldorf before the summer holidays are over, he wants to embark on one last adventure with the friends he will soon have to leave behind. So the trio break into the villa and discover the hideout of the “White Falcons,” a boys’ gang that was legendary in the village ten years earlier. Its leader, Peter Laux, has been missing ever since. In an emblem belonging to the group, Jan finds a secret map that, once decoded, is supposed to lead its owner to the Falcons’ treasure. Jan, Basti, and Stevie decide to seek out this treasure for their last adventure together. But Marie’s gang gets wind of their plan. Without their parents knowing, Jan and his friends set out on a hike lasting several days to find the treasure, which is said to lie near an abandoned castle ruin—with Marie and her gang following them all the way. When the two groups finally meet, Basti, who has diabetes, becomes hypoglycemic from overexertion. His glucagon injection is the only thing that can save him, but it is in the belt pouch he lost along the way. Jan and Marie call a truce and set off to retrieve it. On the way back, Jan frees Marie from a predicament, and the two grow closer and kiss. But when someone from Marie’s group secretly steals the map, a fierce argument breaks out between her and Jan because he thinks she stole it. In the ensuing scuffle, they finally discover the entrance to an underground cave system near the castle ruin. The teenagers venture into the rocky maze, where a rockslide separates Jan, Stevie, Basti, and Marie from the others—and from what seems to be the only way out. The four eventually reach a cave bearing a relief of a white falcon. It was here that Peter and the Tanner brothers founded the “White Falcons.” The cave is the treasure, because it reminded them of their beginnings and their friendship. Here, Jan also finds Peter Laux’s body. Peter’s two Falcon friends had moved away, and Peter grew lonely; eventually, he went into the cave to die there alone. Jan sees painful parallels with his own situation, but refuses to accept the same fate. He eventually finds a way out after all, thereby saving himself, his two friends, and Marie. Jan then visits Peter’s mother and tells her what happened to her son. In gratitude, she gives Jan Peter’s falcon amulet. A few days later, Jan’s family finally moves away. He says goodbye to Basti and Stevie, but plans to visit them the following year. On the way, he also meets Marie, and this time they part as friends; he gives her the falcon amulet. Back in the present, the adult Jan lights a candle at Peter’s grave and tells his daughter that one must never be afraid of the future—even when it brings painful change. There, he finds the falcon amulet again, which Marie apparently left for him after she too moved away with her family within a year of Jan’s departure. Jan never saw her again.