Summary
Radovan Urban’s children’s film was made in 1989 but it was nearly drowned out by other film productions of the day when it was finally released in the “free distribution” years that followed the end of communism. The hero of the picture – eventually released in February 1991 – is 13-year-old Milda Malý. He reminisces about the recently completed shooting of a film in which he played the principal part, a sensitive boy who mixes reality with an imaginary world inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers. Milda’s self-identification with d’Artagnan is in marked contrast with reality – a holiday camp where he finds himself an outsider and a local gang of children’s target of ridicule. Similarly to the Dumas hero, the protagonist in the completed film – but, by contrast, not the boy who has performed him – finally enjoys justice and recognition. An interesting aspect of the production is that it was actually a retro movie set in the year of 1964. Standing out among the cast are Jiří Lábus, Oldřich Navrátil and Oldřich Vlach.
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