Fantaghirò, also known as The Cave of the Golden Rose (La Grotta della Rosa d'Oro), is an Italian fantasy romance adventure series consisting of five television films directed by Lamberto Bava and released between 1991 and 1996. The first film was originally based on Italo Calvino's "Fanta-Ghiro the Beautiful", and takes place in a fairy tale setting, featuring princesses, princes, witches, wizards and talking animals. Shot mostly in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with the participation of local actors, and highly popular in Italy during the 1990s, it was loosely adapted into a cartoon series of the same title. A reboot series was announced in 2021.
Films
Fantaghirò (1991)
Fantaghirò is the youngest of three princesses born to a warrior king. Although beautiful and intelligent, she causes many problems for her family because she goes against everything expected of a woman in her kingdom, by being literate, adventurous, and rebellious; this makes her father furious. One day, the King receives an invitation from the enemy prince Romualdo to a duel that can potentially end the centuries-long war that has been going on between the two kingdoms. When the King learns that only one of his three daughters can win the fight, Fantaghirò sees this as a chance for her to prove herself.
Fantaghirò 2 (1992)
Fantaghirò and Romualdo are due to be married, but their wedding is cut short when news arrives that Fantaghirò's father has been kidnapped by the evil Black Witch, the queen of the Dark Kingdom. The witch demands that the kingdoms of Fantaghirò and Romualdo submit to her rule, but they refuse and Romualdo declares war. He sets out with his army, leaving behind Fantaghirò, who has sworn not to lift another weapon for the rest of her life. Now, forced to break her oath, Fantaghirò secretly sets out to the Dark Kingdom alone to face and defeat the evil queen, who plots to separate Fantaghirò from Romualdo forever and to make him her lover.
Fantaghirò 3 (1993)
The dark wizard Tarabas learns that his powerful kingdom will be defeated by a royal child of no more than ten years of age. He becomes obsessed with learning how this will happen, so he orders his clay warriors to kidnap all of the world's royal children. When the children of Fantaghirò's sisters become targets, Fantaghirò and Romualdo protect them from the attacking clay soldiers. However, during the fight, Romualdo accidentally falls into a cursed river and turns into stone. Fantaghirò then learns that she has to find Tarabas if she wants to save her beloved Romualdo, and for that, she will need the aid of the Black Witch.
Fantaghirò 4 (1994)
A black cloud is travelling throughout the land, destroying everything it touches. When the black cloud consumes Fantaghirò's castle, she allies herself with Prince Parsel to track the black cloud to its origins and stop whoever is casting it. Along the way, Fantaghirò is reunited with the wizard Tarabas, who agrees to help them on their quest, and Princess Anjelica, who is in love with Tarabas.
Fantaghirò 5 (1996)
Fantaghirò is captured by the Black Witch, who has been unable to perform evil magic ever since she helped Fantaghirò in the previous films. The witch is about to execute the captured Fantaghirò when the princess is suddenly sucked into an alternative reality where she has to join forces with a scoundrel named Aries in defeating a child-eating monstrous villain known as the Nameless.
Cancelled sequels
The producers planned a further continuation of the series, which would have included two more chapters (sixth and seventh). In these, Fantaghirò would have continued to travel to parallel worlds, each from a different fairy tale, and to our world in the modern era, helping people in need before returning home to her kingdom only to find it an alternative and dark reality where she would face an evil version of herself. Another sequel, Il ritorno di Fantaghirò (The Return of Fantaghirò), was considered by Lamberto Bava and Gianni Romoli in 2007.