Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern

A small girl sits freezing by the roadside on New Year's Eve and attempts to sell matches whilst passers-by single mindedly hurry past. It's then that she does something strictly forbidden: she lights one match after the other. In light of the warm flame she loses herself in never-never land, before disappearing completely from her desolate surroundings. This film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale picks on the original's socio-critical footing and leads this, by means of an opulent visual presentation, to an uplifting conclusion.