International Film Festival For Children And Youth Zlin

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LONG LIVE THE KNIGHTS! (Karel Janák, Czech Republic)
 

At the heart of the Zlin Film Festival, which had its official opening this morning at the Grand Cinema, the 2500+ seat movie palace that is the largest in the Czech Republic, are films made for the children's and youth market. While the Hollywood studios package big budget fantasy films for the enthusiastic base of young cinemagoers, the films being showcased this week here are of a different stripe. Whle their stories vary, their common thread is offering a child-eye perspective of the world......one that is not necessarily always innocent or naive but is remarkably knowing and sophisticated. Young people may love fun and games, but they are also sensitive to the tensions and disharmonies of the world they live in.

The two main competition sections are for Feature Films for Children and Feature Films for Youth. Rather than simply lumping  these two together, the Festival makes a clear distinction, showing a deep understanding of the fact that the entertainment needs of young people changes as they age. A film that is oriented towards very young children will not be so  easily embraced by young peope just a few years older. Conversely, a film with more complicated themes that are appropriate for a teenager or young adult audience will be over the heads (and even quite disturbing) to younger children.

 THE INDIAN (Ineke Houtman, The Netherlands)

In the truly international mix of each competition section, it is interesting to observe how filmmakers frame their stories, usually offering a surrogate character on screen that young audences can relate to. However, it goes beyond relating.....it actually becomes more subliminal, as if the character on screen serves as the eyes and ears for the audience and interprets the action through the unique point of view of the mix of clarity and confusion that are the benchmarks of young development.

The films in this year's International Competition of Feature Films For Children definitely reinforce a youthful approach to things, but do not hesitate to show some of the tension, friction even violence of the greater world in which they live. In fact, most of the films focus on the  need for young people to band together in order to preserve and protect what they have grown to need and rely upon. In LONG LIVE THE KNIGHTS!, a big screen adaptation of a popular Czech television series, a group of youngsters in Medieval times come together to save a righteous man from the evil landowner who covets his wealth and property. In the Norwegian film EAST END ANGELS, the action is set in the Vietnamese immigrant ghetto where two sisters come to the rescue of their big brother who is falsely arrested for drug possession. In the Danish film STORM, family tensions come to the surface when a young boy adopts a dog who has been violently abused by his owner.

 MAGIC TREE (Andrzej Maleszka, Poland)

The shifting sense of identity in a multi-cultural world is movingly explored in THE INDIAN, a Dutch film about a young boy of Indian origin who struggles to fit into a society where he is considered an outsider. Fitting in and being accepted is also at the heart of THE CROCODILES, a German film about a young boy who desperately wants to fit into the coolest gang in his school and accepts a dare that goes dangerously wrong. Also from Germany is the film THREE INVESTIGATORS IN THE SECRET OF TERROR CASTLE, an intriguing who-dunnit about a group of young  people who try to find the perpetrators of a burgularly but find some disturbing evidece about one of their parents.

Fantasy continues to be a staple for young audiences and this year's Festival does not forget this prolific genre. MAGIC TREE, a potent fantasy tale from Poland, three younsters find a chair made for a magic tree which will apparently make any dream come true. The children decide to use the magic powers from this magic tree to help them find their parents who have left them in the charge of theeir mean auntie. THE RAIN FAIRY contains all the transcendent and cruel elements of a Grimm Brothers yarn, in the morality tale of the Rain Fairy who travels the land dressed as an old woman, only to discover that love and kindness are disappearing.

Despite the sometimes candy-coated atmosphere, the inner and outer struggles in these films point to a less than idyllic reality of fear, repression and even violence that are ultimately undermined by the innocent idealism of the main protagonists. As echoed in Anne Frank's famous diary, there is a belef in these films that people are essentially good and will respond positively to acts of charity and kindness.

Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor