Hände weg von Mississippi (2007)

Ten-year-old Emma goes to the countryside for the holidays to visit her grandmother Dolly, who runs an unofficial boarding house for homeless animals there. She learns that Mr. Klipperbusch has died. He owned an old Haflinger mare named Mississippi. His sleazy nephew, Albert Gansmann, expects to inherit Klipperbusch’s estate and, even before the will is read, tries to sell Mississippi, who is of no use to him, to a slaughterhouse. Dolly and Emma prevent this by making a higher offer. Later, Dolly transfers the horse to Emma, who otherwise spends her time with her friend Leo and his older brother Max. Gansmann plans to build a shopping center on the inherited land, which would mean economic ruin for all the shopkeepers in the village. When Gansmann turns up at Dolly’s and offers to buy the mare back for a much higher price, which Emma naturally refuses, it becomes clear that there is a secret. Through a ruse, the children discover that the inheritance is tied to the horse in the will: whoever owns Mississippi and takes good care of her for as long as she lives will inherit the estate. Gansmann’s attempt to abduct the horse fails, so instead he kidnaps Dolly’s dogs and demands Mississippi in exchange for them. But rather than hand over Mississippi, they give him another horse that they have made to look like her. Gansmann realizes this too late, and the entire estate goes to Emma and Dolly. Gansmann’s plans have all come to nothing; as stipulated in the will, the Klipperbusch estate becomes an animal shelter, and otherwise everything in the village stays as it is. The villagers celebrate with a wild party, while Gansmann gets his sports car stuck in a meadow.