Summary
Josef Pinkava was already among the best directors of films for children and teens when in 1967 he seized the opportunity to realise his own screenplay in an ambitious Czech-French co-production. The protagonists of his playfully conceived narrative for Automat na přání – a shorter version of which was released in the US as The Wishing Machine (1971) – are two boys, Honza Kašpar and Vašek Balabán, who dream of travelling far beyond their tiny Czech village. Their wish is fulfilled by dreaming up an interplanetary spacecraft, which also gives them stories to tell their friends. The distance from adventurous children’s dreams to reality, however, remains quite stark... Apart from amateur child actors Vítězslav Weingärtner and Milan Zeman, the film features seasoned professionals such as František Filipovský and Josef Hlinomaz.
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