Cinderella

A closer look at the story

After her mother's death, Ella's merchant father remarries, and Ella does her best, in kindness, to help Lady Tremaine, her new stepmother, and the two daughters she brings with her. Her father's unexpected death changes everything; now dependent on a heartless stepmother, Ella becomes a servant in her own home. Still, she never gives up hope. One day she meets a handsome stranger in the woods whom she believes to be an apprentice at the palace, when in fact the young man is the prince himself. Ella is thrilled to hear of a ball at the palace, but her stepmother will not let her go. That is when a kind-hearted fairy disguised as a beggar appears. Kenneth Branagh directs Chris Weitz's screenplay in this 105-minute 2015 film stars Lily James, Cate Blanchett and Richard Madden in an enchanting fairy-tale adaptation.