Die sechs Schwäne (2012)

The farmer Heinrich has six sons who have nothing but mischief on their minds. While playing, they accidentally set the farm on fire, and as the fire is being put out, Heinrich’s pregnant wife goes into labor. The difficult birth raises fears of the worst, so Heinrich sends his youngest son, Benjamin, to the lake with a jug of water to prepare for an emergency baptism. The other boys, however, don’t take the matter seriously. They splash around in the lake and toss the jug to one another until it finally breaks. Heinrich is beside himself with anger, fearing for the child’s soul, and curses his sons, wishing that they would all disappear from his sight forever. To his horror, the boys are then transformed into swans and fly away. Contrary to expectations, the mother dies, while little Constanze survives. She grows up sheltered and happy. Only on her eighteenth birthday does she learn that she had six brothers. Furious with her father for keeping this from her, Constanze rides across the lake at night. On the far shore, the six brothers appear to her. At first Constanze takes them for ghosts, because they have not aged since that day. They tell her about the curse their father placed on them, which will soon turn them back into swans. She also learns that only she can break the curse: she must remain silent for six years and weave six shirts from nettles. But if she speaks even a single word during that time, it will be like a dagger thrust into their hearts and will kill them. The boys then fly away again in the shape of swans. Constanze immediately begins her vow of silence and leaves her remorseful father’s farm without a word of farewell. She spends the next several years living in seclusion in the forest, sewing the shirts for her brothers. There she is discovered by Markus, prince of the kingdom, who takes the girl he believes to be mute back to the castle. To his mother the queen’s displeasure, Markus will not be dissuaded from marrying Constanze, whom he calls “his fairy” and to whom he feels very close despite her silence. After the wedding, Constanze’s father, Heinrich, appears at an audience and tries to speak to his daughter. When she runs away, he confides in the queen. She uses what she knows about Constanze’s brothers to torment her; for instance, she now takes particular pleasure in having roast swan served before her daughter-in-law. Constanze is now pregnant, but she still sneaks out of the castle at night to gather nettles and spin them into yarn, greatly alarming the servants, who think her nocturnal activities are witchcraft. The queen invents stories to get rid of her hated daughter-in-law and also has all the nettles in the surrounding area uprooted. One day, when the six swans fly over the castle courtyard, she demands that her son shoot one of them. In desperation, Constanze knocks the prince to the ground. Markus demands that his wife stop weaving the shirts, but she refuses. At night he follows her outside, where Constanze is visited by her brothers. In the fog, the prince mistakes the swans circling Constanze for ghosts. When the prince is struck by a fever the next day, the queen and her steward stoke the rumors about Constanze and her witchcraft. Unexpectedly, Constanze’s father visits her. Despite her resentment, he wants to help her and gives her medicine for the prince. Markus does indeed recover and reconciles with his wife after their son is born. The queen and her steward, however, are determined to get rid of Constanze once and for all. They steal her child and make it appear that she murdered the baby. Constanze, unable to defend herself against the accusations because she is determined to keep her vow of silence at any cost, is sentenced to death. As the stake is already ablaze, the swans fly over the courtyard, and Constanze throws the shirts to them. Her brothers, transformed back into humans, rescue her from the fire. At the same time, Heinrich arrives with the unharmed child; he had followed the steward into the forest when the steward took the child away. Constanze’s innocence is proven, and the prince strips the queen of her power after she is exposed as a liar. She and her steward are driven from the castle by their subjects. Markus becomes the new king, and Constanze, finally freed from her silence and reconciled with her father, becomes his queen.