"Bauernprinzessin", which means "Farmer princess", is an Austrian German-language television film from 2004, so this one is already over 15 years old. These under 1.5 hours were directed by Susanne Zanke, an experienced filmmaker who started in the early 1980s already and is now in her mid70s. She retired a few years after this film and this is one of her later career efforts. She returned for the two sequels though. Gonna get to those later on. The writer is Austrian Susanne Rasser from Austria and these three films are her only movie writing credits, even if she has been prolific in other areas of writing. The photo here on imdb is pretty misleading because it does not depict one single key character. On the left is Günther Maria Halmer, probably the most famous cast member, but he also only plays a relatively irrelevant supporting character and, let's be honest here, the fact taht he acts in films like this one is just another piece of evidence that his role selection has been terrible for decades now. The only thing I kinda remember here is the sarcastic applause early on when the will is read and he gets nothing than a chest filled with wood. The other cast members are almost completely unknown to me and as I am a pretty big German(-language) film buff, that says a lot. Take lead actress Sissi Wolf. Knizka admittedly I have seen on other stuff. Erni Mangold was getting closer to 80 back then already and is now in her 90s and still acting and has been in the industry for over 70 years already because she started in the late 1940s right after WWII. We'll see if she can make it to 75. Aglaia Szyszkowitz's sister is on board. She is German, but there are several Austrians on board here. This applies to Wolf, Mangold and also Toni Böhm, who sadly died not too long after this film and the fate was similar compared to the character he portrays in here, even if the cause of death was entirely different. Kinda surprising how long Mangold is with us and how early Böhm had to go. Also a surprising cause of death for somebody easily under the age of 60.
Let's move on to the film. I will just do some brainstorming about all kinds of stuff that came to my mind when watching. The very basic summary of the story is we have the premise that the owner of a farm dies and three women related to him have to take care of it now. Major focus is on the youngest of them and also her blossoming romantic relationship with a man that starts working on the farm. That one is a Muslim and we see him pray with his carpet very early on, which did feel a bit strange. I mean I am all for freedom of religion, but how he ends up in the mountainside coming from Eastern Europe and with his religious background does feel a bit for the sake of it. You can also say that cute animals are included here, but not too many, just goats basically and I love goats, but they did not even get a lot of screen time sadly. The only occasion where you see them for a while is when we see Knizka's character's shenanigans with them and how he challenges the alpha goat. Shame he did not get injured while holding his horns. He should have been fired for that. Grandma finds it funny of course. Her scenes with Knizka's character are embarrassing to watch anyway with how she likes him so much that she starts talking again in the "Good morning" moment, but also how he carries her around early on. So the cute animals had the task to make the audience forget about the lack of a good story. The simple ones may fall for it. The terrible soundtrack had the same task. And like so many other times with this kind of movies there is a lot of anti-male narration in here: Men are fools. The old one dies because he is reckless and stubborn and he never took his beloved partner to Italy despite promising all the time. The anti-Muslim guy is a racist. One character dares to hit on his brother's girlfriend. Halmer's character is evil anyway and wants to sell the farm. The aforementioned boyfriend dares to not sacrifice his dream of Canada for his girlfriend. How evil to have a different life plan! And then sets it all on fire instead of helping his girl with the farm. And the new man also leaves her behind eventually. This is what they do when they fail and are not capable of writing actually strong female characters. Just turn all guys into scapegoats.
But the writing is also poor from every other perspective, such as the "surprise" that Anna inherits the farm because the old man changed hos last will and testament briefly before his death. But it is understandable as we see when she cries so hard next to the old man's corpse. The only one who did. By the way, you can see how this film lacked focus completely when we have the executor start rambling about allergies and that he is happy to live in the city where there are no pollen. It's not the big story where the movie fails, but also the small moments. Again, I must mention the emancipation moment. This is at its worst when we have Anna (Wolf) meet Knizka's character for the first time and give out instructions to him like a boss. At the same time, when she leads him around, we are supposed to see there is chemistry between these two through eye contact and clumsy behavior. Okay. Written so poorly. Or how the (initially) silent grandma is treated like an authority who sees and hears everything. On one occasion, Knizka's character Bogdan asks something like isn't it dangerous with three goats running around and this "joke" was the film's understandfing of comedy and metaphors because indirectly he was talking about the three women. I don't even. So no surprise with men like him, there is a strong anti-male agenda with this movie. Take Anna saying something like "You guys are all the same." And at the same time we are supposed to feel sorry for her with her whining that she gets up at five, goes to bed exhausted and nobody's helping with the work and that everybody says she should sell the farm. I applaud every woman who sees through this nonsense. By the way, the scene in which the two men meet, boyfriend and farm hand, is also pretty cringeworthy, especially with the quick music, and I don't mean the way it was intended by the filmmakers.
As for the small and "witty" inclusions, take the idea how granny won't smile at the boyfriend, only at the new man. Of course, the latter is also super good with children and by the way the line delivery from this male child actor was absolutely terrible. So exactly spot-on for this film. These are some of the embarrassing routes the film took in manipulating the audience into thinking Knizka's character is the right one for her. Let's completely ignore the fact that our lovable Anna is an unfaithful cheater and it is not only her kissing the new guy while she is still in a relationship with her boyfriend. It's okay if women do it in these films. Double standards galore. Of course, the guy she wants to be with has to be physically strong and he is as we see when he defends himself against the one who wants him to drink some alcohol. The spacy soundtrack was so painful to listen to honestly also in this scene. Same applies to the following scene in which there is a bit of a brawl in a pub/restaurant after a complete stranger tries to kiss Anna. What is wrong with the people who made this movie? Anna wants her strong dude of course, so she rejects nice guy Gerhard and says that Bogdan is there to help her. The fire I mentioned earlier is also pseudo drama of the worst kind. Thank God topless Bogdan is around to oppose the flames. Haha, this is like Twilight. The "smells like gas" comment was of course really deep and meaningful showing us this was not an accident, but planned. Mute Granny is also there to give us her suspect right away. You could say that this was the kind of pseudo drama we always see 15 minutes before the film ends and it is partially true. But it was really only included for Anna to haver a real justification to end things with her boyfriend without putting any blame on her. Also pay attention to how the boyfriend only gets a quick kiss on the cheek there. Anna's real affections are elsewhere. And of coruse the boyfriend would immediately admit it was him. Let him pick jail over Canada if he wants to, but he must be honest to his beloved super desirable girlfriend of course. Music again horrible for these scenes.
Also pay attention to how Knizka's big arms are constantly seen. He is a wild brute! If there is anything positive to say, then maybe that the actor's accent wasn't too bad. Have to look deep here. Halmer can't give me anything because his character has basically disappeared for the second half. Oh and to loser her other suitor Gerhard (her boyfriend's brother), Anna just makes sure he dances with another girl and is also really unfriendly towards him although he did not do a thing. Charming young lady. As I just mentioned Halmer, his character shows up eventually with the big revelation that Bogdan betrayed people during the war. What? Where did that come from? More randomly pseudo-important filler material. More suffering for Sissi's character here, pretty embarrassing the actress has this first name because there is not 1% of Romy Schneider's class to her. As for the suffering, it already happened way earlier when she got slapped in the face by her mother. What a family we got here! They really went all in to show us how this young woman was struggling and suffering so hard and that we in the audience must really want that she finds happiness, especially with how she is alone in the end again and screams out the guy's name into the mountains. This could have have been a good scene to end a good movie, but here it just added more embarrassment. I will be honest here: I don't like unrealistic happy endings, but unrealistic unhappy endings are just as bad because with the one here, the writer knew exactly there will be more films. Highly not recommended.
Let's move on to the film. I will just do some brainstorming about all kinds of stuff that came to my mind when watching. The very basic summary of the story is we have the premise that the owner of a farm dies and three women related to him have to take care of it now. Major focus is on the youngest of them and also her blossoming romantic relationship with a man that starts working on the farm. That one is a Muslim and we see him pray with his carpet very early on, which did feel a bit strange. I mean I am all for freedom of religion, but how he ends up in the mountainside coming from Eastern Europe and with his religious background does feel a bit for the sake of it. You can also say that cute animals are included here, but not too many, just goats basically and I love goats, but they did not even get a lot of screen time sadly. The only occasion where you see them for a while is when we see Knizka's character's shenanigans with them and how he challenges the alpha goat. Shame he did not get injured while holding his horns. He should have been fired for that. Grandma finds it funny of course. Her scenes with Knizka's character are embarrassing to watch anyway with how she likes him so much that she starts talking again in the "Good morning" moment, but also how he carries her around early on. So the cute animals had the task to make the audience forget about the lack of a good story. The simple ones may fall for it. The terrible soundtrack had the same task. And like so many other times with this kind of movies there is a lot of anti-male narration in here: Men are fools. The old one dies because he is reckless and stubborn and he never took his beloved partner to Italy despite promising all the time. The anti-Muslim guy is a racist. One character dares to hit on his brother's girlfriend. Halmer's character is evil anyway and wants to sell the farm. The aforementioned boyfriend dares to not sacrifice his dream of Canada for his girlfriend. How evil to have a different life plan! And then sets it all on fire instead of helping his girl with the farm. And the new man also leaves her behind eventually. This is what they do when they fail and are not capable of writing actually strong female characters. Just turn all guys into scapegoats.
But the writing is also poor from every other perspective, such as the "surprise" that Anna inherits the farm because the old man changed hos last will and testament briefly before his death. But it is understandable as we see when she cries so hard next to the old man's corpse. The only one who did. By the way, you can see how this film lacked focus completely when we have the executor start rambling about allergies and that he is happy to live in the city where there are no pollen. It's not the big story where the movie fails, but also the small moments. Again, I must mention the emancipation moment. This is at its worst when we have Anna (Wolf) meet Knizka's character for the first time and give out instructions to him like a boss. At the same time, when she leads him around, we are supposed to see there is chemistry between these two through eye contact and clumsy behavior. Okay. Written so poorly. Or how the (initially) silent grandma is treated like an authority who sees and hears everything. On one occasion, Knizka's character Bogdan asks something like isn't it dangerous with three goats running around and this "joke" was the film's understandfing of comedy and metaphors because indirectly he was talking about the three women. I don't even. So no surprise with men like him, there is a strong anti-male agenda with this movie. Take Anna saying something like "You guys are all the same." And at the same time we are supposed to feel sorry for her with her whining that she gets up at five, goes to bed exhausted and nobody's helping with the work and that everybody says she should sell the farm. I applaud every woman who sees through this nonsense. By the way, the scene in which the two men meet, boyfriend and farm hand, is also pretty cringeworthy, especially with the quick music, and I don't mean the way it was intended by the filmmakers.
As for the small and "witty" inclusions, take the idea how granny won't smile at the boyfriend, only at the new man. Of course, the latter is also super good with children and by the way the line delivery from this male child actor was absolutely terrible. So exactly spot-on for this film. These are some of the embarrassing routes the film took in manipulating the audience into thinking Knizka's character is the right one for her. Let's completely ignore the fact that our lovable Anna is an unfaithful cheater and it is not only her kissing the new guy while she is still in a relationship with her boyfriend. It's okay if women do it in these films. Double standards galore. Of course, the guy she wants to be with has to be physically strong and he is as we see when he defends himself against the one who wants him to drink some alcohol. The spacy soundtrack was so painful to listen to honestly also in this scene. Same applies to the following scene in which there is a bit of a brawl in a pub/restaurant after a complete stranger tries to kiss Anna. What is wrong with the people who made this movie? Anna wants her strong dude of course, so she rejects nice guy Gerhard and says that Bogdan is there to help her. The fire I mentioned earlier is also pseudo drama of the worst kind. Thank God topless Bogdan is around to oppose the flames. Haha, this is like Twilight. The "smells like gas" comment was of course really deep and meaningful showing us this was not an accident, but planned. Mute Granny is also there to give us her suspect right away. You could say that this was the kind of pseudo drama we always see 15 minutes before the film ends and it is partially true. But it was really only included for Anna to haver a real justification to end things with her boyfriend without putting any blame on her. Also pay attention to how the boyfriend only gets a quick kiss on the cheek there. Anna's real affections are elsewhere. And of coruse the boyfriend would immediately admit it was him. Let him pick jail over Canada if he wants to, but he must be honest to his beloved super desirable girlfriend of course. Music again horrible for these scenes.
Also pay attention to how Knizka's big arms are constantly seen. He is a wild brute! If there is anything positive to say, then maybe that the actor's accent wasn't too bad. Have to look deep here. Halmer can't give me anything because his character has basically disappeared for the second half. Oh and to loser her other suitor Gerhard (her boyfriend's brother), Anna just makes sure he dances with another girl and is also really unfriendly towards him although he did not do a thing. Charming young lady. As I just mentioned Halmer, his character shows up eventually with the big revelation that Bogdan betrayed people during the war. What? Where did that come from? More randomly pseudo-important filler material. More suffering for Sissi's character here, pretty embarrassing the actress has this first name because there is not 1% of Romy Schneider's class to her. As for the suffering, it already happened way earlier when she got slapped in the face by her mother. What a family we got here! They really went all in to show us how this young woman was struggling and suffering so hard and that we in the audience must really want that she finds happiness, especially with how she is alone in the end again and screams out the guy's name into the mountains. This could have have been a good scene to end a good movie, but here it just added more embarrassment. I will be honest here: I don't like unrealistic happy endings, but unrealistic unhappy endings are just as bad because with the one here, the writer knew exactly there will be more films. Highly not recommended.
