The Winter Ghost (2012)

The story:

Hendrick lives in a small town. It’s winter and the greatest joy of the children is to skate on the frozen river. But Hendrick’s mother is very poor and she can’t afford skates for her son.

By a lucky chance, Hendrick gets a job as a farmhand for Annies’s parents. It looks like his dream of getting his own skates could become true. But Annie, the daughter of the house, is very suspicious of him. She thinks that he is a good-for-nothing, and definitively not to be trusted.

What’s more, odd things are happening at the farm: a Ghost is seen wandering around there. When Annie and her father accuse Hendrick of the trouble at the farm, he has to show what he is made of. To prove his innocence, and to show Annie how wrong she is, Hendrick has to solve the mystery of the Ghost. And as determined as he is, he gets his skates in the end.

The graphics of the film:

The film is inspired by Pieter Bruegel’s paintings (born c. 1525-30, died in Brussels 1569).

The scriptwriter and director Jaana Wahlforss says:
“Ever since I saw Bruegel’s paintings, so full of life, beautiful colours, richness of details, people and animals and peculiar creatures, I wanted to make a film on all that, on what I saw and imagined when looking at his works. My previous films, The Yellow Giraffe’s stories (10 x 5 min and 26 x 7 min) were inspired by poems from all around the world. Now, I want to make films for children on the most beautiful and interesting works of art that I know.”
Epidem Zot - RED CAPS, http://www.epidemzot.com/winterghost.html (10.12.2014).