I’ll Never Give Up Tereza for a Girlfriend

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1976

Production year

1976

Premiere

12 November 1976

Runtime

92 min

Category

film

Genre

children

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Terezu bych kvůli žádné holce neopustil

Czech title

Terezu bych kvůli žádné holce neopustil

English title

I’ll Never Give Up Tereza for a Girlfriend

Working title

Zizi

Summary

This 1976 family film jointly directed by Dimitrij Plichta and seasoned colleague Josef Pinkava was the final addition to Plichta’s filmography, at the time a 64-year old documentary maker and occasional live-action filmmaker. The title character of this film is a small female chimp, named Tereza, brought home by Dr. Tesař from an exotic trip abroad. The animal is unhappy in a cage at Prague Zoo, so Tesař takes her home. Both Tesař’s sons are excited about the new arrival, but their jealous friend Pepík resolves to steal the primate. But it soon transpires that Tereza has special needs that the boy cannot accommodate… The adult roles in this merry tale about love for animals go to Luděk Munzar and Jana Hlaváčová (as Dr. Tesař and his wife). The children’s roles include Roman Čada and Michal Suchánek.

Synopsis

Doctor Tesař returns from his business trip to Africa with a monkey orphan - a chimpanzee girl Tereza. He places her into a cage in the zoo he works. The monkey is, however, sad, and refuses the food. In spite of his wife's disagreement he takes the monkey home to provide her with a better care, which greatly pleases his sons Robert and Martin. Pepík - the oldest of the three-member bunch of gamins who trespass crazy bike riding ban in the zoo - is temporarily deprived of his bike for punishment. He envies the Tesař boys their monkey and so he decides to revenge. He wants to steal the monkey, being helped by his friend Jarda, his younger brother Honzík and Marcela, who joins them. Robert takes a good care of Tereza until he secretly smuggles her in to school. Children are excited but the teacher objects and thus servants take Tereza to the zoo. The gamins use it, set trash bins to fire and manage to steal Tereza in the confused situation. However, the chimpanzee is sensitive, and hidden in a lift casing she does not feel like eating and finally gets fever. Pepík is afraid of being placed in a detention centre and so he does not let anything out, though there is a huge investigation running. Fortunately, the monkey runs away by herself. The children help in searching for her; the adults inform where they have noticed her. Finally Tereza finds her way to the zoo by herself. The monkey gets soon well, to a great pleasure of children including Pepík, who hopefully redeems himself.

Note

The film was started by the film director Dimitrij Plichta, however following his disputes with the stage crew he was replaced by the film director Josef Pinkava.

Cast

Norbert Judt

Robert Tesař

Ivan Polášek

Martin, Robertův bratr

Michal Suchánek

Honzík, Pepíkův bratr

Karel Polášek

Jarda

Luděk Munzar

RNDr. Petr Tesař, otec Roberta a Martina

Jana Hlaváčová

matka Roberta a Martina, Tesařova žena

Čestmír Řanda

vrátný Votruba

šimpanz Tereza

opice ze ZOO Liberec

Adam Matejka

Voice by Karel Houska
ošetřovatel Vrabec

Ľudovít Kroner

ošetřovatel Josef Malina

Jaromír Roštínský

Voice by Ladislav Mrkvička
ošetřovatel Bohoušek

Míla Šulc

ošetřovatel Honza

Stanislav Tříska

ošetřovatel

Eva Chalupová

Voice by Jana Drbohlavová
učitelka

Crew and creators

Second Unit Director

Zdeněk Zydroň

Screenstory

Dimitrij Plichta

Director of Photography

Karel Kopecký

Camera Operator

Arne Parduba

Production Designer

Zdeněk Rozkopal

Set Designer

Šťovíček Josef st., František Santarius

Production Manager

Vojtěch Kunčík

Unit Production Manager

Dušan Schaffer, Rostislav Stružka

Consultant

Jiří Bulíř, inž. Jelena Roštinská

Cooperation

Karel Kopecký (fotograf), Květa Králová (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatelka šimpanzů)

Music

Music Composed by

Angelo Michajlov

Music Performed by

FISYO (Music Conducted by František Belfín)

Songs

Kluci jsou páni

Song Composer Zdenek Merta
Writer of Lyrics Pavel Žák
Singer Petr Rezek

Tereza

Song Composer Jiří Šlitr
Writer of Lyrics Jiří Suchý
Singer Norbert Judt

Production info

Original Title

Terezu bych kvůli žádné holce neopustil

Czech Title

Terezu bych kvůli žádné holce neopustil

English Title

I’ll Never Give Up Tereza for a Girlfriend

Working Title

Zizi

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

children

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1976

Production Year

1976

Production specifications

withdrawal from distribution 30 September 1991

Premiere

premiere 12 November 1976 /suitable for youths/ (celostátní)
premiere 16 December 1976 /suitable for youths/ (kino Mír, Praha)

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

92 min

Original length in metres

2 555 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,66

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech

Awards

Vítěz

Festival: 5. festival dětských filmů České Budějovice

1976
České Budějovice / Czechoslovakia

Vítěz

Festival: 16. festival filmů pro děti Gottwaldov

1976
Zlín / Czechoslovakia

Vítěz

Festival: 16. festival filmů pro děti Gottwaldov

1976
Zlín / Czechoslovakia

Vítěz

Exhibition: 8. přehlídka filmů pro děti Ostrov nad Ohří

1976
Ostrov nad Ohří / Czechoslovakia
Norbert Judt