Summary
The name of Břetislav Pojar is closely connected with animated film. But this full-length live-action motion picture centred on a boy’s fishing adventures represents a gripping exception in Pojar’s filmography. As is also the case with his animated work, director-screenwriter Pojar sets out to engage a child (respectively, family) audience, with what is a 1955 adaptation of a Vladimír Pazourek short story. The little hero of the narrative is an orphaned country boy, Jirka (non-actor Ilja Černohorský), who stays aloof from his peers. Only through a chase for a “river queen” – a pike – does Jirka get more involved with his environment, something which opens up a way through to his ferryman grandfather (time-proven actor Vladimír Hlavatý). Alongside Pojar’s involvement in this film, also noteworthy is the contribution of Ladislav Helge, who as a screenwriter just starting out participated in writing the film and additionally served as an assistant director. Helge’s work with the child protagonists prepared him well for his own directing debut with a film called Škola otců (School for Fathers, 1957).
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