Krabat

Krabat (2008) is a German dark-fantasy film directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner, adapted from Otfried Preußler's beloved novel — watch it online on iFILM. The setting is seventeenth-century Germany, the Thirty Years' War grinding everything to ash. A thirteen-year-old orphan named Krabat follows a voice from his dreams to a mill hidden in dense forest, where the master takes him on as an apprentice.

The mill is a school for black magic. That much becomes clear quickly. What takes longer to surface is the price: every winter solstice, one of the boys does not wake up. Krabat sees the pattern but cannot find a way out alone. David Kross plays the lead; Daniel Brühl appears as his closest friend among the apprentices.

Preußler's novel has been on the International Board on Books for Young People's honour list for decades, and Kreuzpaintner keeps the adaptation genuinely dark — no softening for a younger crowd, no tidy rescue. Stream Krabat online on iFILM.