Look, He’s Flying!

In the 1980s attempts in communist Czechoslovakia to make appealing films about young people yielded mixed results. This 1984 film directed by Tomáš Tintěra is about three friends – two lads and a girl – who feel drawn to flying a hand-glider. However, apart from building their dream “flying machine” Andy, Bondy and Hana also need to sort out their relationships. Both friends are in love with the girl but there are also other things that put their mutual friendship as well as their original plan to engage in distance learning to the test. This inconspicuous, yet undeservedly forgotten picture, deals with the “mandatory” theme regarding the further education of apprentice youths while, at the same time, even managing to extract some pleasant entertainment from it with colour added to the background by the score composed by the Eben brothers. The leading parts are played by the relatively unknown Michael Hochbauer, Jan Valenta and Romana Kvapilíková, while the accompanying roles are taken by Josef Somr and Míla Myslíková.