Summary
This unusual fantasy film by experienced Soviet director Alexandr Mitta was a coproduction in which Czech involvement was negligible. The heroes of Pohádka o putování (A Fairy-Tale about Wandering, 1983), a rather dark story for its time, are the impoverished orphans Marta and Maj. One day, Maj is abducted by Grandfather Frost [in Czech, “Děda Mráz”], who has learned of the boy’s unnatural talent for finding gold and aims to misuse it. Marta (Tatyana Aksyuta) decides to look for her lost sibling and with the help of the wandering inventor Orlando (Andrei Mironov) she makes a long and dangerous journey. It ends with her discovery of a grown-up Maj, transformed beyond recognition… The horror-like story bears little resemblance to a typical fairytale for children. By the end of Pohádka o putování, the young heroes are powerless and suffering from plague but have gained a moral lesson about the baneful power of gold.
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