Ute Heidorn

The expectations of Elias are high. He is not only an excellent student, but also the son of the richest farmer in the Zillertal. Soon he will take over the farm. But the more desperately he tries to fulfill his intended role, the more he feels that he really wants to live a completely different life.

Around 1520, Schwaz and the silver region became the Silver Empire, the Silicon Valley of Europe. Not only the mining of silver and copper, but also the associated “industry” characterize the villages and hamlets of the region. With the arrival of the Fuggers, the Tyrolean trades disappear. Power, powerlessness, wealth and poverty - new times dawn in the “silver empire”. In 1521, the Fuggers take over the exploitation of silver mining in Schwaz/Tyrol. This marks the beginning of a new European era. Schwaz silver is used to buy empires, finance wars and set progress in motion. But it is not only the “silver town” of Schwaz, but also the entire region around Schwaz along the Lower Inn Valley, as well as other regions of Europe, that provide innovations with silver and also the lesser-known copper mining.

Willibald Adrian Metzger restores old furniture, the beauty of which he admires with a good glass of red wine. The amiable loner visits his customers by bicycle because he does not have a driver's license. Usually he only pays attention to old cupboards and chests of drawers, but this time something else piques his interest: a beautiful woman bathing in a lonely mountain lake. The sight promptly knocks him out of the saddle - especially since it is his unfulfilled childhood love Danjela Djurkovic. She doesn't seem to recognize him anymore, because she is only interested in the macabre find at the place where they meet again: a severed finger that is stolen by a bird of prey in the next instant. Is that a dream Willibald and Danjela have a common goal, the Hotel "Sonnenhof" - from whose pool the corpse of a guest has just been fished. The police assume an accident. But before Willibald knows it, the curious Danjela has taken a farewell letter and the dead man's cell phone.

Rosa, a young and self-confident woman, used to live a happy life in a small valley in the Alps, but after the second world war broke out, everything changed.

Lower Austria in the 80s. Anna helps out in her uncle's tavern to fund her studies and meets handsome Kurt who casts an eye on her. But when the local factory closes, life in the valley changes. Anna learns that Kurt is going to marry. Then a terrible accident occurs. The film conveys the rural society's changing self-conception and outlines the conflict between staying or leaving for the city.

In the mid-1970s, Elfi falls in love with Sepp. Since both are "slightly" disabled, serious problems soon arise. The decisions about their lives are made by others. What they simply imagine—marriage, having children, and simply being happy—becomes a difficult undertaking without a happy ending.