Summary
Screenwriter Ota Hofman was a successful author who was involved in a number of successful co-productions with West German filmmakers. His most regular Czech collaborator was the director Jindřich Polák but children’s comedy Karlovarští poníci (The Ponies of Karlovy Vary, 1971) was directed by Jiří Hanibal. The director ably developed the concept laid down by the film’s foreign producers, creating a warm narrative about a friendship between a German girl and a Czech boy that was set around prominent beauty spots in Czechoslovakia, notably the west Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary. The father of the German girl Angelika (Barbara Land) is a guest at a local hotel. The girl befriends Kája (Vladimír Zátka), the receptionist’s son. He helps her to fulfil her dreams of owning an endearing pony. Horst Thomas starred as Angelika’s father while the role of Kája’s mother was played by Karolina Slunéčková.
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