Content
The summer of 1944. The countess Lena Gräfin von Mahlenberg travels from Berlin to her home in East Prussia to attend to a longstanding, deep conflict with her terminally ill father. Eight years before, Lena had left the family manor to raise her illegitimate child instead of marrying the count Heinrich Graf von Gernstorff, whom she had been “promised” to for quite some time, but had never been in love with. Lena assumes the responsibility for her father’s manor and decides to marry Heinrich after all. But then the wedding is delayed due to the suicide of Heinrich’s brother Ferdinand. While the treks of refugees from the Memel Territory pick up and the front closes in on them, Lena tries to forget about the menacing doom. Yet someone in her courtyard keeps reminding her of the oncoming catastrophe: Francois Beauvois, a French POW. After her father is finally able to make peace with Lena, he stays at the manor and assigns his daughter with the responsibility for the Mahlberg trek and the survival of her wards. Lena leads the refuges through a merciless winter from East Prussia to Bavaria. On this long and relentless journey, her emotional bond to Francois turns into a life-threatening entrapment that compels her to abandon love. Upon arrival in Bavaria, the social order is breaking down and making way for new paths…
Joint production from ARD Degeto, BR, HR, SWR, WDR and arte in cooperation with teamWorx and EOS Entertainment, sponsored by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Nordmedia und MEDIA Plus
