Many of director Karel Kachyňa’s works feature children in central roles, offering their point-of-view on the grown-up world that surrounds them. Práče tells the story of a nine-year-old orphan boy at the end of the Second World War, who manages to find a new home under the shelter of anti-Nazi forces. Made in 1960, the film naturally presents contemporary ideological viewpoints. Young František, nicknamed “Práče” – or child soldier, based on the names given to children used in battle during Hussite times – ends up in the frontline laundry room, but soon shows himself to be an welcome presence. The boy even helps to foil Nazi spies, thus helping bring about victory in the Dukla Pass in the Carpathian Mountains. Michal Koblic takes the title role; in the ensuing two years he would make a further eight film appearances. Experienced actors star in the adult supporting roles, including Vladimír Menšík as the good-natured army cook Pekárek.
In the autumn of 1944 Soviet soldiers come across a liberated concentration camp and find a Czech boy there called František Bureš. They send him to a Czechoslovak unit located near Dukla. Lieutenant Zlonický assigns him as an unsalaried employee to work in a laundry at the front. The laundry soldiers – "laundrymen" – take a liking to the boy. The slinger – the soldiers' nickname for him which was used to describe the youngest Hussite warriors – doesn't care for life in the laundry. He also wants to fight. When Slinger proves himself as a reliable messenger, the soldiers train him in military conduct. One day Slinger meets a little Slovak girl called Marijka from Porúbka whom her grandfather has sent with his only cow into the mountains. Marijka is forced to stay with the laundrymen when fighting breaks out. She is missing her grandfather, so František offers to take a letter to Porúbka for her. On the way he encounters four Germans dressed as Russian soldiers. František goes back to inform the laundrymen who are able to thwart the spies' plans. The soldiers are decorated for their efforts and Slinger also receives a medal. Shortly afterwards the Czechoslovak unit breaks through the Dukla pass. At the rear of the advancing army the laundrymen soon march into their beloved country.
vojín-elév František Bureš zvaný Práče
Marijka Kalinčuková
desátník Antonín Krupka, zvaný Slepejš
svobodník Dalibor Šamonil
vojenský kuchař Josef Pekárek
vojín Evald Heller
vojín Imrich Gallo
nadporučík Zlonický
major Kubeš
rotný Rudolf Sodoma
vojenský švec Maralík
desátník Kvačil
četařka Vlasta Netušilová
řidič nákladního auta
vojenský krejčí Seifert
desátnice
desátnice
tankista
tankista
německý špion
kapitán Fojtík
ruský důstojník
Anna Pokorná, Jaroslav Toms, Dagmar Menhartová
Jan Mareš (Práče – povídka)
Olga Himmerová, Václav Dobeš
plk. František Nevěřil
Jaroslav Chlasták (fotograf), Milan Kordoš (fotograf)
FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček)
Singer Vladimír Menšík
Singer Vladimír MenšíkMartin Ťapák
Singer Marie Magdolenová
Singer sbor
Song Composer lidová píseň
Práče
Práče
The Slinger
film
featuretheatrical distribution
children, drama, war
Czechoslovakia
1960
1959—1960
literary Screenplay approved 3 June 1959
technical Screenplay approved 23 September 1959
start of filming 30 September 1959
end of filming 16 February 1960
projection approval 3 March 1960
withdrawal from distribution 30 June 1991
premiere 6 May 1960 /suitable for youths/ (kina Mír /1 týden/, Paříž /2 týdny od 13. 5./, Odboj /1 týden od 13. 5./, Kyjev /1 týden od 20. 5./ a Mladých /1 týden od 20. 5./, Praha)
preview 6 May 1960 (kino Sevastopol /1 týden/, Praha)
Tvůrčí skupina Hanuš – Pavlíček, Ladislav Hanuš (vedoucí výroby tvůrčí skupiny), František Pavlíček (vedoucí dramaturg tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
83 min
2 364 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
black & white
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech
Festival: 3. festival českých a slovenských filmů Ostrava
1961
Ostrava / Czechoslovakia
Festival: 12. mezinárodní filmový festival pro děti a mládež Benátky
1960
Benátky / Italy
Event: Umělecká soutěž k 15. výročí osvobození Československé republiky a zrodu lidově-demokratické ČSR
1960
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Karel Kachyňa