Die Puppenspieler (2017)

The film uses as its framing story the alleged business dealings of Jakob Fugger at the end of the 15th century. To protect his Hungarian mines from the advancing Turks, Jakob Fugger is said to have influenced the 1492 papal election in his favor. At the same time, his protégé Richard stands up to the Dominican Heinrich Institoris and his witch mania. In 1484, the young monastery student Richard is forced to watch as his mother, Zobeida, is accused, tortured, and burned as a witch by the fanatic Heinrich Institoris. As she faces death, Richard attacks Institoris with a knife and apparently stabs him to death. The powerful Augsburg merchant Jakob Fugger takes the orphan Richard into his care and tells him that the inquisitors responsible for his mother’s death are to be found in Rome, in the circle around the ailing Pope Innocent VIII. Since the pope has no interest in defending Hungary against the advancing Ottoman army, while Jakob Fugger wants his many silver mines there protected, he works to secure the succession of the cardinal he favors, Ascanio Sforza, to the Throne of Saint Peter. Jakob Fugger, Richard, and his confidant Anton Eberding therefore travel to Italy to bribe the cardinals on Fugger’s behalf. Through a chain of tragic events, however, Richard encounters his old enemy Institoris, who is still alive and also on his way to the Vatican, seeking greater power. During the journey, Richard happens to meet Saviya, a young Romani woman, who impresses him with her sensuality but repels him with her superstition, and their paths soon part. Meanwhile, Jakob Fugger manages to gain access to Italy’s powerful elite through the prelate Maffeo Gherardo, and, above all, to make contact with the unpredictable Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. Fugger, Richard, and Eberding are welcomed as guests at the Medici palazzo, where the schemers gather: Borgia, his son Cesare, Ascanio Sforza, and the opposition cardinal Giuliano della Rovere—a friend of the also-present Abbot Torrani, who has Institoris and the Inquisition under his authority. At this ball of the powerful, Richard sees Saviya again. The Fuggers travel via Florence to Rome to influence the upcoming papal election and witness the power struggle between the Medici and the Borgias. Richard’s love for the mysterious fortune-teller and dancer Saviya, as well as his conflict with the witch-hunters, repeatedly threatens to derail Jakob Fugger’s mission. The candidate they originally wanted cannot be installed, and in 1492 Rodrigo Borgia finally ascends the Holy See as Pope Alexander VI. Richard’s love for Saviya, however, seems lost, as she becomes ever more entangled in the machinations of power. As Alexander VI’s fortune-teller and his son Cesare’s lover, she is beyond Richard’s reach. When Giuliano della Rovere seeks revenge for the corrupted papal election, Saviya is abducted by Torrani and his henchman Heinrich Institoris and taken to the stake. Richard begs Alexander VI for mercy, but gets no hearing because of the pope’s fear of the powerful Della Rovere, and takes matters into his own hands. Jakob Fugger tries to stop him, whereupon Richard learns that Fugger is his biological father and was his late mother’s lover. Richard cannot be stopped, however, and instead asks Fugger where he was when his mother was burned. A fight breaks out, in which Saviya narrowly escapes death. Richard and Institoris meet as equals for the first time. Facing imminent death, with Richard’s rapier at his throat, Heinrich Institoris concedes defeat. He and Torrani manage to escape, but several of his henchmen die by the blades of Eberding and Jakob Fugger. Anton Eberding is wounded and succumbs to an abdominal wound. Their grief brings Richard and Saviya together.