The Chimney Sweep

I like Springman and the SS the best from Trnka's earlier work because it is a purely topical and highly desirable issue. While the live-action film dealt with the Protectorate, for example, with the help of the comedy Nobody Knows Anything, the animated film rushed in with a beautiful story about an extremely agile collaborator, that it was then simply necessary for the little Czech chimney sweep to become a hero in a mask and punish all the iniquities stemming from dishonesty with the deserved punishment. But unfortunately, after 1945, the trace of the masked hero disappears and the nation suffers again... (08/10/2015)

Pérák is an amazing war legend and fits perfectly into the Czech environment, where a similar, essentially comic book superhero is missing. In Jiří Trnka's animation, which combines real photographs with drawings, the short story resonates wonderfully, thanks to the ability to build atmosphere through music and various small details - such as Hitler on the wall. The atmosphere is sometimes truly oppressive, but it has been lightened with mocking scenes and caricature, which is also reflected in the drawings themselves. And as is often the case with Pérák, we don't really get to enjoy him that much, because more than half of the runtime is actually missing. (12/19/2013)