Fichtelberg

Fall 1551 in Jizera Mountains in Bohemia. Young knight Petr acquires a new job – to take care of the small mountain village Urbach on Lord's behalf and make sure that a bridge is built for entering the nearby forest rich in minerals and metals. But the village people are disappearing under suspicious circumstances. Suddenly, somebody digs out all graves and takes most of the bones away. Locals believe Satan has cursed their village and are afraid to work. When his love Alma disappears, Petr sets out on a journey to save her. In the forest, he encounters the secretly-operating Wallachians who plunder the local resources. Thanks to them, he discovers the village people are being kidnapped by malicious Moro who operates a secret fake-glass-work factory on the top of the mountain and has all the villagers enslaved there. Petr and the Wallachians rescue the villagers and Alma from the factory and defeat Moro. However, Alma was not kidnapped by Moro but has fallen for him and betrayed Petr who thus leaves Urbach for Genoa with the Wallachians.

Director’s statement
The film I want to make about Petr and the Wallachians will be a celebration of the richness of creativity and imagination, a courageous achievement of resistance; turning oppression into knowledge, horror into fantasy. The visual style is intrinsically connected with the structure of the narration and makes the film unique, mixing scenes of real images and animation. The story witnesses how knowledge and creativity can win spiritually over closed-mindedness and fear. In a way, we are facing similar events across the whole Europe: due to the fear of other people, unknown foreigners, new legends and myths are being created, causing fear among people. I want to create a metaphor that can be translated into our societies nowadays. The mixed-media technique, using 3D and 2D elements with photographic matte painting background and real footage characters will create an atmospheric vision of the dark ages, and foggy mountains will add an anxious atmosphere.