Directed by:
Jan SvěrákScreenplay:
Jan SvěrákCinematography:
Vladimír SmutnýComposer:
Michal NovinskiCast:
Ondřej Vetchý, Tereza Ramba, Alois Grec, Jan Tříska, Viera Pavlíková, Oldřich Kaiser, Zuzana Stivínová, Hynek Čermák, Petra Špalková, Zdeněk Svěrák (more)Plots(1)
Eight-years-old Eda is a long-desired and anxiously protected child by parents who had lost one baby before. Now Eda became backup child; he even has the same name. After his father rejects to affiliate with Nazi invadors of Czechoslovakia in 1939, the family is forced to leave Prague and spend war times living with relatives in the countryside. Little town where Eda used to spend short holiday only, becomes his home for a while. The war provides mysterious adventures to Eda whose childish eyes can not percieve danger of difficult times. For him life feels strange but beautiful now – city boy lives in a tiny town, joins local boyish crew to spend days walking barefoot, notices beauty of girls for the first time and discovers both deep family secrets and his own bravery. Barefoot is lyrical feature film about childhood and heroism of ourselves. Chronologicaly and thematicaly, the film is the first episode of a tetralogy of movies Elementary School (1991), Kolya (1996) and Empties (2007) that were created and produced by family duo Jan Sverak and Zdenek Sverak. (Bioscop)
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Reviews (10)
You know that you are watching a very well done film from the 2nd WW period, but at the same time you feel that there is basically no story. And I would be ok with that if only the character played by Oldřich Kaiser (who is getting better with every role) wasn’t made the most interesting one and basically holds the whole story together but then it is killed off in the most disgusting manner towards the end of the film. And this end was my biggest Czech movie disappointment in a very long time.
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The film didn't disappoint me outright, but I had hoped it would be even funnier, with more humor from Zdeněk Svěrák, but it's a bit weaker in that regard. As a nostalgic film, it works, especially thanks to the great child characters. The storyline revolving around the character of Vlk (Oldřich Kaiser) had much more potential within it.
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It has some magical moments that prove that Svěrák Jr. is a really good director. I appreciate the view of the war through children's eyes, but the story is too disjointed; it needed a unifying line. The story of Uncle Wolf, which was supposed to cement the narrative, isn't enough to pull the whole film together. It's a shame, I really wanted to love this film.
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I was expecting to laugh a bit more, but the mood of the film was rather melancholy. I was okay with that as soon as I realized that this wasn't going to be one of Svěrák’s typical comedies, and I quite enjoyed the film. I really liked the atmosphere of rural idyll spiced up with war events. What I loved were the performances of Oldřich Kaiser and Tereza Voříšková and the film’s subtle humor. It was an incredibly relaxing and feel-good film.
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If you are a fan of Svěrák, you’ll survive Barefoot unscathed and even with a pleasant smile. It’s a cute, poetic view of the world through the eyes of a child that is too cute and too loosely poetic – the story lacks a core conflict that would help give shape to the characters and the pleasant episodes of life are supported by several sub-plots, but lack a solid frame and give the impression that they could last another hour. Other than Eda, the character with the most interesting story is Kaiser’s Wolf, the rest have a more or less subordinate position and guide the protagonist through a world driven mainly by family values and the beauty and pitfalls of boyhood, with the war taking a secondary role. It’s not a bad film, it has solid direction and several nicely delivered humour motifs, but the result is too shoddy and inconsistent. 65%
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Gallery (50)
Photo © Bioscop
![Barefoot - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/166/017/166017349_ddaebc.jpg)
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