Petronella (1927)

Valais, in 1801, at the beginning of the Napoleonic-French uprisings against Europe. As they advance, the French soldiery meets unexpected resistance near the village of Brunegg. All the locals, women and children included, bravely defend themselves against the foreign attackers. Despite heavy losses, they win an unexpected victory. Pia Schwiek, an especially courageous fighter, watches her husband fall on the barricades while facing the vastly superior enemy. Young Josmarie Seiler also suffers a terrible loss: in the chaos of battle, he loses his father, the village’s elderly blacksmith. To make matters worse, the community’s good-luck charm also disappears: a bell named “Petronella” after the local patron saint. Two farmers who had been missing since the battle had previously hidden it in the mountains so that it would not fall into enemy hands—a loss that would surely have brought great misfortune upon Brunegg. But no one knows exactly where they put it. Then misfortune strikes after all, because “Petronella” remains missing: an epidemic claims the lives of several villagers, and even the miracle healer Tschäderli is powerless to stop it. Pia Schwiek, now a widow, becomes the “prize of victory” in a contest between two men: Josmarie, with whom Pia has been in love for some time, and the burly, wealthy farmer Fridolin, who both vie for the young woman. Then the next calamity occurs: Fridolin wins the duel between their lead cows, but his triumph does not last long. In the midst of the tumult, Fridolin accidentally wounds himself fatally with his own knife. The village council then decrees that Josmarie must leave the village, threatening to kill him if he returns. Josmarie wanders through the mountains and finds the missing “Petronella” in a crevice in a ravine. Holding the bell in his arms, he dares to return to the village, and is pardoned just as quickly as he was banished, in view of the blessed treasure he has brought back. Now nothing stands in the way of his marriage to Pia.