Toni Goldwascher (2007)

Twelve-year-old Toni Sedlacek lives with his mother in the rural idyll of the Bavarian Alpine foothills in the postwar period. His passion is panning for gold in the river, just as his late father once did. The village community is divided into the so-called Lower Villagers and Upper Villagers. Toni is at odds with the boys in the Lower Villagers’ gang. He gets along reasonably well with Herbert, who lives in the village orphanage. Elfi, also a child in the orphanage, is mute because of war trauma. She would like to be friends with Toni and secretly follows him around, which annoys him quite a bit at first. While rummaging in his father’s workshop, Toni finds a treasure map that says there is still gold to be found on the small island in the middle of the river. Since his mother warns him against swimming across, he builds a raft from logs. Herbert helps him build it, but Toni makes the first crossing alone and actually finds a few nuggets while panning for gold on the island. After seeing the village blacksmith make metal objects by melting them down, Toni secretly makes a ring for Elfi from the gold he found, in the workshop at his parents’ house. The Lower Villagers Hans and Siggi, who have noticed Toni’s efforts, also go to the island and dig for gold. They find no gold, but they do find a working rifle and its ammunition. One night, when Hans goes to the Sedlaceks’ house with the rifle, Toni wakes up at the barking of his vigilant dog, Strupp. Hans flees to the river. Toni unchains his dog and follows him. Hans makes sure that a short time later Strupp is drifting downstream alone in a boat. To save him, Toni follows on his homemade raft, but falls into the water from exhaustion. At the same time, Mrs. Sedlacek finds Toni’s bed empty and, with the help of the chaplain, calls out a police search party. When they quickly give up, Toni’s mother and the chaplain continue searching on their own. At least they are able to locate Strupp by his barking and bring him home. Elfi and Hans then travel along the river to search for Toni. Hans reassures Elfi that the rifle only has signal flares. When Hans fires one—it is still pitch-black night—Elfi spots Toni on some driftwood. Toni is rescued, and Elfi begins speaking again.