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 quite absent. In Jiří Trnka's animation, which this time combines real photographs with drawings, the short story resonates wonderfully, thanks to the ability to build atmosphere through music and various subtle details - such as Hitler on the wall. The atmosphere is at times truly oppressive, but it has been lightened by mocking scenes and caricature, which are evident even in the drawings themselves. And as is often the case with Pérák, we don't get to enjoy it that much because more than half of the runtime isn't really there. (12/19/2013)