Blot in a Fairy Tale

Specialist director of children’s films Ota Koval drew inspiration from a book by Jiří Melíšek to create Kaňka do pohádky (Blot in a Fairy Tale, 1981), a film about the incredible adventures of a pair of siblings. Thanks to a magic ink blot discovered in a collection of fairytales by Josef Lada the two are repeatedly able to enter the book’s story world. But just as eight-year-old Vendulka and her older brother Ondra can cross the line between fiction and reality, so too can characters from the other side, such as the fairytale boy Honza or a cow that escapes from a fairytale farmer and ends up in the Prague Metro. The story also features writer and painter Lada himself. It is to his studio that the inquisitive girl finds her way… The imaginative narrative, whose visual tricks were provided by Adolf Hejzlar (Arabela – Arabella, 1979, Tři veteráni – The three Veterans, 1983, Rumburak – Rumburak, 1984), provides easy but good quality family entertainment. The role of Vendulka was given to popular child actress Žaneta Fuksová who played numerous film roles between 1978 and 1988. Another popular child star of that time, the now director Filip Renč, made a cameo appearance as a boy standing by a billboard.