O zakletém králi a odvázném Martinovi (2018)

An opening introduction presents the legend of the “Kingdom of Svarog,” whose king was wise and good. He owned a crown that, people said, could grant any wish and cure any illness. King Svarog was betrayed by his closest adviser, a powerful sorcerer. Since the sorcerer could rule a kingdom only if its people willingly handed over power to him, Svarog refused to surrender his rule and was cursed, along with his entire kingdom. Scene change. The librarian of another kingdom, who tells Princess Michaela this legend, insists that it is not a fairy tale but a true event. He tells her that her father might know where this land is and that the crown may still exist. Scene change. In the forge of the blind Martin, Martin, his neighbor Pavel, and his mother Agatha wonder why only weapons are being forged. They conclude that Vlkan, adviser to the seriously ill king, is behind it, because he wants to succeed the king and then wage war. Scene change. At the castle, Michaela asks her father about the magic crown, but he claims it is only a fairy tale, a claim Vlkan confirms in the king’s presence. After they have both left the king, Vlkan tells the princess privately that Svarog’s kingdom really did exist and is cursed. He also reveals that the king actually owns a map and always keeps it with him. Later, the princess outwits the guards watching over the king’s sickbed and sneaks in. There, hidden inside a hollow part of the scepter, she finds the map. Back in her room, she studies it and learns that the Kingdom of Svarog is enclosed within a mountain with a crooked peak. She gets herself soldiers’ clothes and a saber, and, defying her father’s order, slips out of the castle without being recognized. Once her escape is discovered, Vlkan wheedles the king into giving him full authority, promising to bring his daughter back. Later, in a monologue to his reflection in a mirror, he reveals his plans for power and his intention to kill the princess, since she could thwart his schemes. Scene change. In a forest—it is winter, shortly before Christmas—Martin cuts down a tree to bring home to his mother Agatha as a Christmas tree. In the yard, he meets the arriving princess, who wants her horse shod and her saber sharpened. Since blind Martin cannot recognize the princess, he treats her just as he treats other people. When Princess Michaela enters the house, Agatha recognizes her immediately and serves her the best food she can. Michaela says she intends to continue on to the Crooked Mountain, whereupon Martin insists on accompanying her. Agatha manages to persuade them both to spend one more night first. Worried that she might lose her son, Agatha brews a sleep-inducing tea with the help of mandrake root. Martin notices that the tea smells different from all the others he has had, but drinks it anyway and falls fast asleep. He wakes late the next day and learns that the princess has already left. All he finds of her in the snow is a silk handkerchief. Shortly afterward, the princess’s horse trots into the yard alone, which is a bad sign for what may have happened to her. Martin gathers his belongings, an axe, and the horse, tells it to take him to where it has just come from, and mounts it. He promises his mother he will be back before Christmas. The horse takes Martin to a spot in the forest beyond which it will not go, because no animal will come any closer to the enchanted mountain. Martin dismounts and continues on foot through the winter cold and deep snow. He comes to a portal-like opening in the mountain and goes inside. After a few steps, he reaches another world. It is clearly summer and warm, and the plants are in bloom. He meets a goblin who first tries to impress him while staying hidden. When Martin tells him he has some buchty with him, the sweet-toothed goblin reveals himself. After Martin catches him stealing more buchty, the goblin offers him some advice as compensation. In rhyming verses, he tells Martin that only the wondrous crown can help the princess; that an old, evil woman lives in a gingerbread hut by the river; that Martin should grab her cat but be very wary of the woman herself; and that “the crown will unleash its power.” After crossing a river, Martin meets the old, evil woman. She is hard of hearing, but can smell him even as he approaches. Once they are inside her gingerbread house, the woman fills two cups with “fly milk” and adds some mandrake-root powder to one of them. When Martin is about to drink his cup, he recognizes by its smell that it contains the sleeping potion his mother mixed into his tea. He briefly lures the evil woman out of the house and switches the cups in the meantime. After they have both drunk, the woman falls into a deep sleep. When she wakes, she is hanging upside down over her cooking pot and cannot free herself. Martin makes the woman tell him what happened to the princess. She says she did nothing to Michaela because the saber she was carrying, sharpened by an honest hand, cut through and nullified each of her spells. She reveals that the princess is in Svarog’s castle and that no one ever comes back from there because Svarog is cursed, and anyone who sees him turns to stone. She also says that the castle can be reached by going over the mountain at the end of the valley. Martin then grabs the woman’s cat and leaves her. Once the woman has freed herself from her predicament, she contacts the sorcerer through a magic mirror and “confesses” what happened. Meanwhile, Martin runs toward the mountain. On the way, he meets the goblin, who tries in vain to persuade him to turn back. Martin then begins climbing the mountain. Near the top, the sorcerer confronts him, speaking in the goblin’s voice. His identity as Vlkan is suggested by his identical appearance, but Martin, being blind, does not recognize him. After the sorcerer makes Martin fall, but gently sets him down, he leads Martin to believe that he, the goblin, has saved him. He claims the kingdom will remain cursed as long as Svarog is alive, so Martin must kill him to free the princess. The sorcerer then disappears in a cloud of black smoke. After a while, Martin reaches Svarog’s castle and enters unhindered into a hall filled with people who have turned to stone. By feeling his way around, he also finds Princess Michaela, frozen in stone. When he calls out loudly, Svarog comes to meet him, but Martin does not turn to stone because, being blind, he cannot see Svarog. Svarog now explains in greater detail how the curse came about. Martin tells Svarog that he must kill him to free everyone. Svarog is ready to die, but Martin cannot bring himself to strike him down with the saber. The sorcerer then appears from his cloud of black smoke and reveals that he would have triumphed completely if Martin had killed Svarog, and that he had goaded him into doing so while disguised as the goblin. After a brief contest of strength, during which the sorcerer uses only a moderate amount of his power in order to torment Martin, Martin manages to hurl his axe into his opponent’s chest. As the axe is pulled out, the sorcerer turns into a mouse, which the cat catches and eats. With the sorcerer’s death, the curse is broken. All the statues turn back into people. Svarog is freed and explains that Vlkan and the sorcerer are one and the same. He also reveals that his crown has no magical powers at all; everything was due to his own magic. In gratitude for his deliverance, he allows everyone to make a wish. Princess Michaela wishes for her father to recover, while Martin, whose greatest wish Svarog guesses, regains his sight and can see. Svarog also crowns Martin as his successor. To bid them farewell, Svarog magically sends the two of them “part of the way toward home.” Princess Michaela and Martin find themselves on the summer side of the rock portal, at the boundary of Svarog’s realm. After saying goodbye to the goblin, they go back through the portal into the real, wintry world. Back in Martin’s home village, his mother waits anxiously for him. When Martin returns and throws his arms around her neck, she realizes that he can see. Meanwhile, the king—Princess Michaela’s father—arrives in the village with his entourage. Svarog’s powers have indeed healed him, and he has been searching for his daughter. When Martin asks what he wishes for most, the king says his greatest wish would be for his daughter to find a worthy husband. It is fortunate that Svarog has crowned Martin as his successor, because that makes him worthy of a princess, and nothing now stands in the way of a wedding.