Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse (2010)

Misfortune threatens the kingdom: the king’s sister, well known for her wickedness and greed for power, is set to inherit the throne. There is a will stipulating that the king must abdicate on his seventieth birthday to make way for his son. However, the young prince must be married on the day he ascends the throne. Since he has yet to find the right one among the princesses he has sought out all over the world, it looks as though the king’s sister will indeed get her way, as there is not much time left before the king’s birthday. The prince loves working as a carpenter and does so in secret. The old king still hopes he can change his son’s mind, and pins his hopes on a princess whose arrival he is expecting. When he tells his son about her, the prince simply says that he wants to marry for love, and reminds his father that he married his mother for love too. But the princess has second thoughts on the way and flees. To the king’s disappointment, only her empty carriage arrives, carrying a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers. The king’s sister orders the courtier to find the princess and get rid of her. Frightened, the princess wanders through the forest, already regretting that she ran away. She is found by a Sister of Mercy who cares for orphaned children, and offers the sister her help. When the prince and the carpenter deliver a handcart to the orphanage, the prince meets the princess without knowing who she really is, and is immediately very taken with her. When the captain of the guard, who also grew up in the orphanage, asks whether anyone there has seen a princess, since her jewelry was found in a barn, the Sister of Mercy denies it after the girl gives a slight shake of her head. The young prince looks for every opportunity to visit the orphanage again. The affection between the two young people grows stronger every day. When the princess tells the prince that the children do not have beds of their own, he can hardly believe it at first. Then he sets about making beds of their own for the children. Later, he joyfully tells his father that he has finally found the girl he has always been looking for. He has fallen in love with a simple girl! His father tries to make him understand that he is not, after all, a simple carpenter, as he claims to be, and that he has a duty to protect his country from the rule of his greedy aunt. Sadly, the prince tells the princess that his father has already chosen a bride for him and that he must marry her. The princess advises him to run away. He asks whether she would come with him, and she says yes. They embrace happily. As he is about to tell his father of his decision, the courtier rushes in and shows the king a cloak and a shoe, supposedly belonging to the princess, who has probably sunk into the bog. The king is beside himself. His sister and the courtier, who have staged all this, are secretly delighted. By chance, the young prince overhears them congratulating each other on their successful plan. He realizes that he absolutely cannot leave the throne to this woman, and decides to give up the woman he loves in order to marry the princess. When the princess realizes that she has fallen in love with the prince, she knows what she must do. Just as she is about to hurry to the castle, the courtier appears, locks her in a dungeon, and takes the key with him. The orphaned children have seen everything and steal the key from him. When there is a knock at the gate, the princess is standing at the door. The king’s sister does everything she can to make the king distrust the young woman, and even the prince is not quite sure what to believe. The king’s sister decides to test the young woman and places a pea beneath a pile of mattresses. She believes that only a princess would be able to feel something as small as a pea through all those mattresses. The next morning, the king’s sister appears at the bedside of the still-sleeping princess, accompanied by the king and the prince. If she really is a princess, she must have felt the pea through all those mattresses. Asked about it, the princess replies that she lay on something hard all night. The king’s sister rages furiously, but it does her no good. There is a wedding at court, and not only are the young couple overjoyed, but the old king is happy too, knowing that his kingdom is now in good hands.