Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair (1970) Spoiler-Free Summary – What It's About

In a fairytale realm where the lines between the mundane and the magical are drawn with sharp contrast, King Yeremei rules with a compulsion for order. Driven by an insatiable need to quantify his domain, he embarks on a year-long trek to survey every boundary and inventory every asset, convinced that total knowledge equates to total power. His journey is one of administrative obsession, a trek that takes him away from his home and into the wild corners of his kingdom, leaving the throne—and his family—vulnerable to the winds of fate.

The king’s return is halted at a seemingly ordinary well, where the narrative plunges into the depths of a darker magic. Captured by Chudo-Yudo, a formidable underwater ruler, Yeremei faces a ransom demand that exploits the blind spot in his meticulous calculations. The price for his freedom is "what he doesn't know he has." Confident in his exhaustive lists and ledgers, Yeremei agrees to the terms, believing he possesses nothing that he hasn't already counted. He steps back onto dry land with a swagger, certain he has bested the supernatural entity through a technicality of his own making.

However, the kingdom he left behind has changed in his absence. Unbeknownst to him, the queen had given birth to a son during his travels—a potential heir who was not recorded in the king’s books. This oversight transforms a simple inventory error into a profound moral dilemma, as the mysterious ransom now has a face and a name. The film sets the stage for a poignant exploration of legacy and love, as the king must navigate a world where his rigid rules fail to account for the most human elements of his life.