Klaus Stangier

Serbia, in the year 1910: Milena Strasek has lived with her 12-year-old son Stefan in a small village since the father abandoned the family shortly after Stefan was born. Many years of uncertainty concerning the man’s whereabouts have taken their toll: Milena Strasek falls seriously ill and dies, leaving her son alone in the empty house. The father appears the following night. He has come to take his son, but Stefan refuses to go with him. It is a fateful encounter, changing Stefan for the rest of his life.

The film begins in 1780 and follows the footsteps of the poet Julius Schönfeld based on his fragmentary diary. The film tells the story of his life at a princely court in Germany in episodic form. One celebration follows another. But the prince's carefree everyday life takes a bitter turn: his cook dies. On her deathbed, however, she asks him to take care of her two children after her death. The prince promises to fulfill her request, probably only because she was his favorite cook. Thus, life changes abruptly for Julius and his sister.