Krakonosovo tajemství (2022)

The new castle owner, Stepán, regards his property above all as his personal wealth. His fiancée, Blanka, agrees with him. Stepán’s brother Adam is also in love with Blanka. That is why he supports Stepán’s efforts to keep increasing his newly acquired wealth and, to that end, find a fabulous treasure in a cave deep in the forest. The cave is guarded by Krakonos, a legendary forest dweller whose existence is doubted by the ethnographer Jiráček. When Stepán and Adam actually find the treasure and fill their pockets with it, they withhold from Krakonos the share of the treasure they had previously agreed upon, lying to him in an attempt to cheat him. Krakonos sees through them and turns Stepán into a raven, while Adam gets lost in the cave. Liduška, a poor young woman from the village, has been hired at the castle as a gardener and has therefore witnessed everything that happened. Worried when Adam, like Stepán, fails to return, she seeks out Krakonos, whose existence she has never doubted. Krakonos urges her to stay with him in his forest home and work for him. When he promises to help Adam once he returns, Liduška agrees. When she feels homesick, Krakonos lets her see her relatives through his telescope. When Adam returns to the castle and tells them about his brother’s transformation, Blanka makes it clear to him that this makes him the new owner of the castle. As they discuss the matter, clues accumulate suggesting that Krakonos was a human several hundred years ago and was also the owner of the castle; there is reason to fear that an ancestor of Stepán and Adam took it from him by attempting to murder him. Now Adam has had enough. When he asked where Liduška was, he learned that she was staying with Krakonos. Adam now sets off to find him, accompanied by Jiráček, who wants to continue researching and documenting Krakonos’s existence, which is no longer disputed. When the two reach Krakonos’s house, Liduška asks him not to harm them. Adam admits that he lied during the treasure hunt and hands over a letter transferring the castle back to Krakonos. The blow Krakonos dealt him earlier causes Adam to collapse unconscious. When he wakes after several hours’ sleep, Liduška has disappeared. Adam wants to set off at once to look for her, but Jiráček wants to stay and talk shop with Krakonos and add to his research. While searching for Liduška, Adam learns from her mother and brother that she is back at the castle. Adam has no desire to go there, but the prospect of seeing Liduška again overcomes his aversion. Once at the castle, he learns that Krakonos has transferred it to a new owner. When he is shown to this person, he recognizes Liduška as the new mistress of the castle. She still loves him and wants him by her side. Liduška invites Krakonos to their wedding. But through his telescope, he sees Blanka, who has now set out in search of the fabulous treasure herself. So Krakonos puts the wedding visit out of his mind and returns to the never-ending task of standing up to greed.