Die Sterntaler (2011)
No stats available
Directors
Cast
Juliane Köhler, Rufus Beck, Meira Durand, Thomas Loibl, anonyme Person, Axel Prahl, Klaus Münster, Michael Ihnow, Eisi Gulp, Nic Romm, Lorenz Willkomm
A young girl journeys to the king to free her village’s indebted weavers, helping those she encounters along the way.
The story
Four years earlier, the king took the adult weavers from a village to work off their tax debts, leaving children and elderly residents in poverty without their livelihood. When tax collectors return demanding more money that the village cannot pay, the elder asks two boys to seek the king’s forgiveness. Little Mina volunteers instead, setting out for the castle with a pair of silver coins, her mother’s cloth doll, and an ancestral good-luck charm. Along the way, she witnesses the suffering of the kingdom’s people and helps those she meets. At the castle, Mina challenges the king’s treatment of his people and seeks a way to free her parents and the other weavers.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Four years ago, the king had all the adult residents of the village, who were all weavers, taken away. They are forced to work off their tax debts in his service. Only the children and the elderly are left behind, living in the bitterest poverty, because the village depended on weaving for its livelihood and has now lost its source of income. One day, when the tax collectors return and demand more money—which the poor people cannot pay—the village elder asks two boys to set off for the king and ask him for forgiveness. When the boys refuse, little Mina steps in. Armed with two silver coins given to her by the village elder, a cloth doll belonging to her mother, and a good-luck charm from her ancestors, she sets out to ransom the fathers and mothers. On her way to the castle, she witnesses much suffering and misery among the kingdom’s people, but helps everyone she meets. When Mina arrives at the castle, she is allowed to speak with the king. She criticizes his actions as unjust and urges him to be a good king to his people and take care of them. The king therefore wants to have Mina thrown into the dungeon, but she finds an advocate in the queen. He then allows Mina to search for her parents among his court. If she finds them by sunset, she and the village’s other weavers will be free. If she fails, they will have to work off their debt to him, even if it takes the rest of their lives. Sad and desperate because sunset has long since passed, Mina sits in a clearing in the woods, where gold coins suddenly rain down from the sky. The next day, she appears before the king with a cart loaded full of coins, pours gold coins at his feet, and says that they cover all the taxes the weavers have to work off, as well as the taxes for the coming years. The king wants to know how Mina managed it, and, after she tells him the story, he greedily rushes to the clearing in the woods. He takes off his clothes so that gold coins will rain into his shirt too. His soldiers see him and arrest him, since walking around naked is forbidden in the kingdom. They just laugh when he insists that he is the king. They take him to the quarry, where he is to learn what it means to do some proper work. Mina, her parents, all the village’s weavers, and all the kingdom’s citizens are free and overjoyed.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…