Rumburak

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1984

Production year

1984

Premiere

1 July 1985

Runtime

90 min

Category

film

Genre

fairytale

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Rumburak

Czech title

Rumburak

English title

Rumburak

Summary

Television series Arabela (Arabella, 1979–1980) gave rise to the popular fairytale fiend Rumburak, who in 1984 was afforded his very own feature film. In this comedy fairytale – from the makers of the TV series, namely director Václav Vorlíček and writer Miloš Macourek – the malevolent and inept second-rate wizard finds himself stuck in our modern-day world. For he has forgotten the spell that would return him to his own fairytale land. The lead character’s cheerless half-life in the form of a crow (by night he attains human form) ends when Rumburak is offered a job as a night watchman in a research institute. There, our fairytale wizard gains access to a magical instrument of our age – a computer. Rumburak uses the device to try and generate the forgotten spell. But Rumburak has a competitor, the wicked engineer Zachariáš, who tries (like the wizard) to woo the kind-hearted figure-skater Helenka. In this story, Helenka serves as the new “princess” substituting the real Princess Arabela, whom Rumburak pursued in the television series. But expectations that the wizard will fall under the positive influence of Helenka, and henceforth only do good, turn out to be misguided: Vorlíček and Macourek restore the character’s malevolent nature as seen in the TV series Arabela, or more precisely in the 1993 follow-up television series Rumburak králem Říše pohádek (Rumburak, King of the World of Fairytales, 1993). The protagonist of this beloved series of children’s tales is one of actor Jiří Lábus’s most iconic roles, and enabled him to team up with long-serving comedic partner Oldřich Kaiser (who plays Zachariáš, the enemy of animals). Nimble ice-skater Helenka is played by Eva Jeníčková. Jiří Lábus also appeared in a different Vorlíček film mixing reality and the fairytale world, namely Saxána a Lexikon kouzel (Little Witch on a Broomstick, 2011), a loose sequel to the classic fantasy comedy Dívka na koštěti (The Girl on the Broom, 1971).

Synopsis

A second-category wizard, Rumburak, originating from a fairy-tale realm, gets stuck in the human world because he forgot the magic formula which would return him home. He flies this way and that as a rook during the day and turns into a man at night. He lives with a female rook, Otýlia, in the tower of St Nicholas church in Prague. He is not doing really well. He has only one joy: watching a pretty figure skater, Helenka Trojanová, at an ice-rink every morning. The girl gets used to the bird and comes to call him Ferda. But Ferda has an enemy – an engineer called ZachariṚ who tries to shoot him and finally hits him one day. The injured bird is taken care of by the nine-year old Vilík Trojan and his father, chairman of the Association for Wildlife Protection. Ferda turns into a human, puts on Trojan's suit and steals a fur coat from ZachariṚ who is just visiting the Trojans because he is wooing Helenka. On the street, Rumburak is run down by the car of a research institute's director, Knotek, who later employs him as a night warden. The wizard discovers a computer in the research institute and begins to manipulate it in his search for the lost magic formula. His movements cause numerous confusions. These are, moreover, multiplied by Zachariᚹ who does discover the magic formula which helps him transports the animals to a fairy-tale realm. It also sends Trojan. A colleague forces ZachariṚ to straighten out everything, which subsequently really happens. Only ZachariṚ is punished, being enchanted into a rook by the computer. The former wizard Rumburak works on the computer with Helenka and has great results. Helenka excells in figure skating, especially because she is daily watched by the rook Ferda – the enchanted Zachariᚹ.

Note

The film follows up on the TV series Arabela (1979–1980). The film continues with another TV series Arabela Returns (1992–1993). Simultaneously with Rumburak, the two-sequel TV version of the movie, entitled Life on a Tower and Computer Sorcery, was filmed.

Cast

Jiří Lábus

čaroděj Rumburak

Jiřina Bohdalová

teta Evženie, učitelka zpěvu

Vlastimil Hašek

ředitel Karel Trojan

Eva Jeníčková

krasobruslařka Helenka, Trojanova dcera

Oldřich Kaiser

inženýr Zachariáš

Lukáš Bech

Vilík Trojan

Michal Ryneš

Jakub, Vilíkův a Helenčin bratr

Jaroslava Obermaierová

učitelka Roupová

Antonín Jedlička

učitel Adam

Ondřej Havelka

učitel Tumlíř

Bronislav Poloczek

vrátný Pechánek

Oldřich Velen

školní inspektor

Vlastimil Zavřel

Ing. Vitvar, Zachariášův kolega

Luděk Kopřiva

majitel kolií

Marie Málková

učitelka Rýdlová

Vlastimil Bedrna

ošetřovatel

Svatopluk Matyáš

Knotek, ředitel výzkumného ústavu

Jiří Lír

prodavač ve Zverimexu

Jan Kuželka

Křepelka, prodavač ve Zverimexu

Bohumil Koška

člen výboru

Vladimír Navrátil

člen výboru

Jaroslav Kepka

člen výboru

Milan Mach

moderátor

Zdeněk Ornest

Ing. Terner

Martina Samková

učitelka Pelášková

Jan Gariš

učitel Koutný

Marta Richterová

majitelka dobrmana

Zdeněk Loníček

učitel Blombíček

Marie Štichová

učitelka

Petr Svárovský

asistent režie

Jan Kraus

taxikář

Lena Birková

žena s micinkou

Jiřina Jelenská

majitelka špice

Olga Navrátilová

známá dámy se špicem

Zuzana Talpová

dáma s dobrmanem

Blanka Lormanová

korpulentní dáma

Jan Žáček

chodec

Michaela Gebertová

sekretářka

Karel Fořt

Voice by Mirko Musil
strávník v bufetu

Zdeněk Blažek

strávník v bufetu

Pavel Havránek

strávník v bufetu

Radovan Versigan

strávník v bufetu

Vlastimila Vlková

strávnice v bufetu

Milan Bouška

loutkoherec

Vítězslav Kuschmitz

loutkoherec

Schejbalová

dubl za Evu Jeníčkovou

Commentary

Crew and creators

Second Unit Director

Jaroslav Pour

Assistant Director

Stanislava Hutková, Irena Krestová

Screenstory

Miloš Macourek

Screenplay

Miloš Macourek

Director of Photography

Emil Sirotek

Second Unit Photography

Milan Kopecký

Camera Operator

F. A. Brabec

Production Designer

Milan Nejedlý

Assistent Production Designer

Michael Poledník

Set Designer

Ivo Černý, Miloš Osvald, Jiří Rulík

Costume Designer

Theodor Pištěk ml.

Film Editor

Miroslav Hájek

Assistant Film Editor

Magda Hájková

Sound Designer

František Fabián

Production Manager

Jiří Krejčí

Unit Production Manager

Iva Šetková, Pavel Nový

Unit Production Manager

Adriena Váchová

Cooperation

Jitka Bylinská (fotografka)

Music

Music Composed by

Angelo Michajlov

Selected Music

Giuseppe Verdi (Rigoletto /Ó, jak je měnivé/)

Music Performed by

FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček)

Production info

Original Title

Rumburak

Czech Title

Rumburak

English Title

Rumburak

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

fairytale

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1984

Production Year

1984

Production specifications

literary Screenplay approved 21 December 1983
start of filming 9 January 1984
technical Screenplay approved 24 January 1984
end of filming 25 September 1984
projection approval 29 September 1984
withdrawal from distribution 30 June 1995

Premiere

premiere 1 July 1985 /suitable for youths/

Creative Group

4. dramaturgicko-výrobní skupina, Stanislav Rudolf (vedoucí 4. dramaturgicko-výrobní skupiny)

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

90 min

Original length in metres

2 501 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech