Tre nøtter til Askepott (2021)

Cinderella, whose parents are dead, lives with her stepmother and her stepmother’s daughter, Dora, on an isolated estate in the north. While the royal couple is visiting there, Cinderella meets the prince on a ride, without knowing who he is. The romantic mood beginning to develop between them is interrupted by the prince’s two noble companions, who come to fetch their master for the hunt. Meanwhile, the royal couple takes its leave of the stepmother and Dora and invites them both to the ball. As the prince learns the next morning, he is to choose a bride there. Back at the estate, the stepmother sends Alfred, an older servant, into town to hire a “styleur” to outfit her daughter Dora for the ball. Alfred asks Cinderella whether she would like him to bring her anything. Cinderella wishes for “something that falls into his hands.” It is a bird’s nest containing three hazelnuts, which the prince playfully shoots down from a tree over Alfred, who is riding in a sleigh. While the arrogant Baron von Snauser attends to Dora, Cinderella discovers the magical contents of the first hazelnut: a hunting outfit. Dressed in it (including a moustache), Cinderella meets the prince and his two companions and demonstrates her superior skill with a bow. For successfully shooting a pigeon, she receives the prize the prince had offered earlier: the signet ring he had received from his father for his future bride. The evening of the ball arrives, and the stepmother assigns Cinderella to help Dora, who has been dressed up and made up for the occasion. Dora is unhappy with her appearance, but Cinderella cheers her up with a compliment. The budding friendship between the stepsisters is ruined by the stepmother, who gives Cinderella a false invitation to the ball; trying to please her mother, Dora half-heartedly joins in her laughter. As a final act of revenge, the stepmother empties a box of sequins in various colors and orders Cinderella to sort them. After the others leave for the ball, pigeons come to Cinderella’s aid, and, equipped with the contents of the second nut, she sets off for the royal couple’s castle, using the Northern Lights as her guide. At the ball, the provincial background of the stepmother and Dora becomes apparent, and they make a slight fool of themselves when being presented to the royal couple. Later, Dora also draws attention to herself with loud, nervous laughter. At the ball, Cinderella disguises herself with a veil and speaks to the prince, who is just about to leave the ball in irritation. He does not recognize her, but wants to dance with her. The romantic atmosphere between them is noticed by the royal couple and others as well. When the prince asks who Cinderella is, she answers with a riddle. Just before Cinderella can answer his question about her identity, she notices her stepmother watching her closely and flees. At the king’s urging, the prince follows her. Cinderella escapes, leaving behind only one of her ball slippers. The prince searches the area for her and also goes to the stepmother’s estate, but cannot find Cinderella there. He asks an old woman to wake all the girls on the estate and bring them out. During the search, the stepmother returns home with Dora and finds the veil Cinderella wore at the ball. Meanwhile, the prince announces that he will marry the woman whose foot fits the ball slipper he found. Cinderella has spotted the prince, but the stepmother catches her in her room. Outside, the prince is growing desperate as the slipper fails to fit anyone, until the people there remember “Cinderella.” As the prince is led into Cinderella’s room and finds his signet ring there, the stepmother and Dora lead the bound Cinderella outside and lock her up. Shortly afterward, the prince sees a woman in Cinderella’s ball gown heading for the sleigh. While the stepmother demands that the prince promise to marry the disguised Dora, he insists on trying the slipper on her. The stepmother can think of no way out and flees in the sleigh with Dora in disguise. Meanwhile, Cinderella has freed herself and opened the last nut. But it is empty—there is “only” herself. After the stepmother loses control of the sleigh, the prince rescues the two women and realizes that Dora is not the girl he is looking for. When Cinderella then arrives without her disguise, the prince recognizes her. In anger, the stepmother shoves the prince through the previously broken railing of a bridge and into the ravine. Cinderella uses an arrow to pin the leather loop that has wrapped around the prince’s leg to the bridge railing, preventing him from falling all the way down. After a brief verbal quarrel with her stepmother, she pins the woman’s hood to the railing too, then helps the prince climb back up. Once the prince has solved the riddle, he asks Cinderella whether she will marry him—because “that’s what one does.” She refuses, pointing out that they have only just met and can do things however they like. In the end, Alfred gets the older woman he has been courting all along, Dora gets a young man from the estate, Cinderella gets the prince, and the prince’s two companions kiss each other as well.