This epic film, directed by legendary Canadian filmmaker Allan King, tells the story of young Lukas Bienman, an indentured servant in 19th century Prussia. Lukas witnesses a murder by the ruthless Count who frames Lukas’ father for the crime. After helping his father escape, Lukas flees with the Count’s sister and her beautiful daughter Ursula to Canada, the home of his estranged grandfather. Set in 1865.
A classical adventure story in the genre of David Copperfield and Kidnapped, By Way of the Stars begins in the 19th century Prussia where youn Lukas (Zachary Bennett) is thrown into turmoil when his mother (Anja Kruse) dies in childbirth, and his grandfather (Dietmar Schonherr) returns to Canada in anger, blaming Lukas’s father (Christian Kohlund) for the mother’s death.
Lukas’s problems escalate when he witnesses a murder by the nobleman count Otto von Lebrecht (Hannes Jaenicke); at the same time his father, Karl, is unjustly accused of a crime and imprisoned. His life shattered, Lukas is indentured as a servant in the castle of the Baron von Knabig (Gunther Maria Halmer), where he encounters Ursula (Gema Zamprogna), the haughty little Baroness; her kind and generous mother (Dominique Sanda); and her evil Uncle Otto, the man responsible for his father’s imprisonment. Lukas orchestrates his father’s prison escape with the help of Nathan the Peddler (Jane Rubes), but circumstances prevent them from feeling together. Events sweep our characters on a disastrous voyage across the ocean to the New World, where Lukas and Ursula survive an outbreak of smallpox; escape a kidnapping attempt by a pair of con artists; and elude Otto by bracing treacherous river rapids, only to find themselves lost in the Canadian wilderness.
Against the backdrop of post-Civil War, we inter-cut the father’s adventures in America. His desire to reunite with his son leads Karl to help a young black boy flee north to Canada. The tragic end to this venture brings Karl to his father-in-law, willing to do anything the grandfather asks as long as Lukas is brought to the New World.
Starring Zachary Bennett, Tantoo Cardinal, Hannes Jaenicke, Christian Kohlund, Michael Mahonen.
Note: Shares many actors from Road to Avonlea.