Cinderella lives with her stepmother and her stepsisters. They don't treat her like a family member, but rather let her do all the work. However, the stepmother's tormenting can not prevent Cinderella from going to the great ball, at which the prince is searching for a bride.

The story of Cinderella exists in many cultures and the Brothers’ Grimm version is one of many of this archetypal story. Another member of the family in the fairytale is Cinderella’s father, who does nothing to stop the tormenting by the stepmother and her two stepsisters. This is why Cinderella weeps at the grave of her deceased mother. What all these stories have in common: Despite being pushed around, the poor but humble and diligent girl is ultimately rewarded with a prince. Cinderella never despairs over her situation, but is always good and does the chores assigned to her. However, the ARD film adaptation does not adopt all Cinderella clichés. Admittedly, here too Cinderella is poor and honest and feels oppressed and wronged. At the same time she is a girl of her times. She’s not timid, but outspoken and independent, and uses, besides her beauty and charm, honesty and cheeky talk to win over the prince. The ARD film brings to mind the charming Czech film adaptation of the fairy tale ”Three Gifts for Cinderella”, which is regularly shown on German television around Christmas. In this summery version, Cinderella already encounters the prince several times before they meet at the ball in the castle, after which the prince commences on his search for the owner of the shoe, which Cinderella lost in the castle.

But before this happens, Cinderella is harassed by her stepmother. She has to wash, clean, and look after the animals. The stepmother (Barbara Auer) torments Cinderella (Aylin Tezel) at any given chance. Only a white dove, sent by her deceased parents, cheers her up and helps her to bravely withstand all injustices. As if by magic, little presents keep falling from the tree at the graveside of her mother.

Meanwhile, the evil stepmother wants to put her own daughter, Anabella (Pheline Roggan), on the throne. The king, and father, has organised a great ball, to which he invites all the unmarried daughters of the land, in order to find a bride for the prince. The father wants to hand over the throne to his son, only after he marries. In this fairytale too, the king (Harald Krassnitzer) is the prospective father-in-law of the female main character.

Cinderella too dreams of the ball, as she sweeps the living room floor, and asks her stepmother for permission to come along. She gives her a number of extra chores to be completed beforehand. Cinderella chops wood, clears up and washes the pots. She then collects the flour from the mill and again meets the young man, who, this time, is hunting with a crossbow. However, she is covered in flour when she meets the prince and he fails to recognise her.

On the day of the great ball, Cinderella has actually finished all her chores. But her stepmother never intended to take her to the ball in the first place. At the very last moment, her sister throws lentils in the ashes and the stepmother follows with peas. Cinderella has to retrieve the peas and lentils from the ashes and neatly separate them. The doves help Cinderella, by telling her: “The good ones go into the pot, the bad ones go into your crop.” But the evil stepmother breaks her promise and only takes the other daughter to the castle. Cinderella tries to find comfort at the parental grave, when a beautiful ball gown falls down from the overhanging tree and a completely saddled white horse awaits her.

At the castle, all the maidens in the land present themselves to the prince (Florian Bartholomäi), but the right one does not appear to be amongst them. Until Cinderella enters. Once there, she realises that the unknown horseman and hunter, whom she met in the forest, is the prince. The ballroom is full of young women, and the prince pushes his way through them. Her stepmother and stepsister chase Cinderella away, but the prince follows her. Meanwhile, the beautiful white horse turns back into a grey donkey and the ball gown into a dirty dress full of ashes. When the prince appears in the courtyard, the stepmother wants her daughter Annabelle to marry the prince at all costs and is prepared to make any sacrifice. She cuts off one of Annabelle’s toes, so that she may wear the shoe which Cinderella lost at the ball, as it is much too small. But a dove tells the prince to distrust this supposed evidence.

'Rook di goo, rook di goo!
There’s blood in the shoe:
The shoe is too tight,
This bride is not right!'

Only Cinderella can wear the shoe and she sets off into the castle with the prince, leaving her past and the evil stepmother behind.



Renate Heilmeier

Production Year

2011

color

color

Aspect Ratio

16:9

Duration

Medium-Length Film (31 to 60 Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Fantasy / Fairy Tale, Literary Adaptation

Topic

Love, Relationship / Family

Target Group

Children’s film (0-6), Junior film (7-11)

Available Media

DVD, Digital Film

Original Version

German (de)

DVD

Subtitles

German (de), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (es), Portuguese (Brazil) (pt)

Digital Film

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil)