diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 8e075d7d..19e978c5 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+  - fix handling of $var.key inside [] (messju)
   - fix handling of assign inside {insert}-tags (messju)
   - fix handling if [...] inside triple-quotes in config-files (messju)
   - fix handling of simple-math-operators inside modifiers (Dominik, messju)
diff --git a/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php b/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
index c1d2d0a9..3f20abd6 100644
--- a/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
+++ b/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
@@ -1674,7 +1674,11 @@ class Smarty_Compiler extends Smarty {
                     if (is_numeric($_index)) {
                         $_output .= "[$_index]";
                     } elseif ($_index{0} == '$') {
-                        $_output .= "[\$this->_tpl_vars['" . substr($_index, 1) . "']]";
+                        if (strpos($_index, '.') !== false) {
+                            $_output .= '[' . $this->_parse_var($_index) . ']';
+                        } else {
+                            $_output .= "[\$this->_tpl_vars['" . substr($_index, 1) . "']]";
+                        }
                     } else {
                         $_var_parts = explode('.', $_index);
                         $_var_section = $_var_parts[0];