THREE WISHES FOR CINDERELLA has as its heroine a beautiful young woman (Libuse Safránková, KOLYA) under the thumb of her wicked stepmother (Carola Braunbock, BREAD AND ROSES) and spoiled stepsister Dora (Dana Hlavácová). The servants love her and the animals help her in the backbreaking daily chores meted out by her stepmother, but she's really a tomboy at heart. While her stepmother and stepsister prepare for a visit from the King (Rolf Hoppe, MEPHISTO) and Queen (Karin Lesch), Cinderella comes across the Prince (Pavel Trávnícek) - who has absconded to the forest for some hunting - when she disobeys her stepmother and leaves her dove friends to sort beans mixed in with ashes in order to ride her horse. Cinderella desires at first not to go to the ball but to follow the Prince on the hunt, and her owl guardian angel Rosalie causes a hunting uniform to hatch out of one of three nuts on a sprig given to her by a servant. When she bests the prince at the hunt, his pride is hurt but he is nevertheless smitten with her (although he does not recognize her from their first meeting). From the second nut springs a gown for the ball, but she rides her own horse rather than a magic carriage (an innovation from the Perrault version of the tale) through the snow. Her face hidden behind a veil, Cinderella dances the night away with the Prince. She does not flee the palace at midnight due to a fading spell but leaves of her own accord after providing the prince with a riddle of three questions he must answer to discover her identity. THREE WISHES FOR CINDERELLA is a charming family film with feminist elements drawn from nineteenth century Czech writer Božena Němcová's version of the tale, itself streamlined in adaptation of some of its Grimm-like darker elements while presenting a self-possessed heroine who gets some magical help but still plays things her way (Disney's recent live-action version seems retrograde by comparison in spite of its attempts to modernize its heroine).