Galose stastia (1986)

The Fairy of Good Fortune is celebrating her birthday and wants to give people a special gift. She thinks for a long time about what she should come up with, and eventually enchants a pair of galoshes that grant whoever wears them every wish. Her friend, Mrs. Worry, has reservations: in her opinion and experience, people are not suited to being happy forever. As soon as one wish came true, they would already be yearning for another. A promising candidate for happiness seems to be a student who would like to go to a ball but has no invitation. A learning fairy notices the student’s desire—she is secretly in love with him—and sets the galoshes out for him. But he is not the one who finds them; the school inspector does. He puts on the shoes and, on his way home from the ball, ends up in a dive, where his appearance causes astonishment. When he also tries to light a cigar, something not customary in those lowly circles, he is taken for “Satan” and thrown into prison. Since he does not know that he is wearing enchanted galoshes, it never occurs to him to make a wish. So no wish can be granted for him. At last, the galoshes are even taken off him and fall into the hands of a lamplighter, who wishes he could be in the place of such a high-ranking gentleman for once. Before he knows it, he has become a young lieutenant, who is then admonished to fulfill his duties. Having lost his entire fortune at the gaming table at the ball, he is expected to shoot himself, as an honorable man would. He fervently wishes he were nothing more than a poor lamplighter, without such worries. In an instant, he is back to being who he was before. But he is utterly exhausted and wishes he could finally sleep like the dead. His wish is granted, and he falls into a deathlike sleep. This puzzles the scientists, who show him to medical students during a lecture. They notice the galoshes still on the “dead man’s” feet. When the shoes are taken off him, he suddenly wakes from his sleep (see Anatomical Theatre). The magic galoshes then come into the hands of the doctor’s assistant, who is on his way to the opera. Once there, he meets his boss, who reprimands him for no apparent reason. So he wishes he had a beard like his boss’s, which he thinks would give him more authority. Suddenly, a beard grows on him, even much fuller than the doctor’s. The staff treat him with great deference, and at the opera he is given preferential treatment and seated right in the front row, where the orchestra is far too loud for him. He flees the situation and ends up right in the middle of the opera, where he tries as best he can to fit in so as not to attract attention. But as he tries to leave the opera stage, he gets even deeper into the scenery and wishes for nothing more than not to be so alone. In an instant, all the opera’s performers appear, and the production goes completely off the rails. In all the confusion, he wishes he were in a steam bath, and his wish comes true at once, much to his amazement. The bath attendant asks to see his admission ticket, and since the assistant has only an opera ticket with him, he has to leave the bath. He is thought to be insane because he believes he is still in the concert hall. He is taken to a psychiatrist and wishes simply to be normal. When the galoshes slip off his feet, he is himself again. The doctor’s clerk puts on the shoes and, finding his work too dull, wishes he were a bird. His wish is granted immediately, and he flies out the window as a parrot. Bewildered, he tries to get back to his office. He is put into a cage with another parrot, which keeps chattering about wanting to be human. The clerk repeats the words, and both are transformed into people. The fairies are always close to those using the galoshes, and the learning fairy is still trying to get the Galoshes of Good Fortune to the poor student. After much effort, she succeeds. The student, who already likes to lose himself in his dream worlds, is not at all surprised to find himself in a castle full of fantastical beings—a place he had unconsciously wished himself into. Among them are a striking number of characters from Andersen’s fairy tales, such as the Snow Queen with Gerda and Kay, the Steadfast Tin Soldier, the Emperor from “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the Little Match Girl, and Ole Lukøje, the little man with two umbrellas. He enjoys his dream and tries to win the affection of the princess he has dreamed of for a long time. The student is already expected as a potential husband for the castle’s daughters, but, like the protagonist in Andersen’s “The Travelling Companion,” he must first prove himself worthy and solve riddles; failing to answer means the death penalty. He solves the first two questions brilliantly, but fails at the third. The executioner awaits him in the dungeon. In keeping with the final question, he wishes for the strongest sleeping potion, falls into a deathlike sleep, and escapes execution. The learning fairy wakes the student by taking off his galoshes. He falls in love at first sight with the pretty young fairy, and she promises to come with him to the human world forever. The Fairy of Good Fortune then takes the galoshes and disappears together with Mrs. Worry.