During the 1970s “normalisation” era, director Zdeněk Sirový often turned to making escapist children’s films. However, even with these, he frequently managed to offer viewers above-average emotionally engaging material. That is very much the case with this unfairly forgotten drama from 1986, made at Gottwaldov Film Studios (today Zlín). The protagonist of the story – with genre and human qualities underscored by screenwriter Jiří Křižan – is 14-year-old Jožka. The horse-loving youngster is looking forward to joining a horse-rearing vocational school. However, a poor assessment from a (communist era) “personnel officer” forces Jožka to instead sign up to learn to become a tractor driver. Fortunately, the youngster doesn’t give up – he teams up with an outsider horse called Palisandr, and the pair set about proving their mettle to the world. Sirový successfully directs non-actor child star Robert Panc in the role of Jožek. Jiří Schmitzer debuts in the role of the mean instructor.
Join Palát, the truck driver from the Napajedla stud farm, has two passions - horses and carrier pigeons. The latter requires Palát to steal grain. However, he is caught and sentenced to prison for several months. But it is Palát's fourteen-year old son who gets the worst of it - the director of the stud farm does not recommend the boy to study at the Chuchle training institution specialized in riding. Joka, who basically grew up on the stud farm, cannot imagine life without horses; he, however, must begin to study at a secondary school of agriculture. He is utterly unhappy there and thus gets into conflicts with his schoolmates as well as the teachers right from the start. He cheers up only during the weekends spent at the stud farm. He is immersed in the problems of the enterprise through the young horse Palisander that suffers from an inborn leg impediment. The farm's director wants to sell the horse by international auction but no one is interested. The horse is saved from the slaughterhouse by the jockey Toník, who promises the director he will prepare the horse for racing. It is spring and father Palát returns from prison. He wants to leave Napajedla with his family but the son refuses to go. Toník must do his military service and the horse's training is taken over by Palát, while Joka is supposed to ride it. The boy runs away from his boarding house to the trainings. His teacher complains about his absences to his father, who only now realizes how unhappy his son is at the school. Palát promises to help him enroll at the longed-for training institution. Palisander runs in the The Seven Race in Sluovice and wins. He has thus earned the right to live. The stud farm's director wants to introduce Joka to the headmaster of the Chuchle training institution. This also means that the boy, too, will achieve his desired goal. They were two outsiders, and they both won.
Jožka Palát
ošetřovatel koní Vít
Voice by Michal Pavlata
žokej Toník Machuta
řidič Jožin Palát, Jožkův otec
ředitel hřebčína Jelínek
vychovatel Vlkovský
veterinář Bartoš
inženýr Kryštof
Milena Palátová, Jožkova matka
novinář
ředitel závodiště
ošetřovatelka Pavelková
ošetřovatel
Voice by Jan Teplý
ošetřovatel
učitel v zemědělském učilišti
Voice by Vítězslav Jandák
ošetřovatel Ondruch
učeň zvaný Páka
učeň Stanislav Kahanec
tmavovlasý učeň
učeň
novinářova dcera
fotograf na závodišti
on sám, ředitel SOUZ Velké Chuchli
Pavel Nášel
Miloš Mališka, Miroslav Makarov
Josef Vojtášek
František Fabián, Jitka Zvirocká (zvukové efekty)
Věra Kopecká, Jiří Zemanec
Milan Sedláček
Ing. Stanislav Waksmundský, CSc., Ing. Zdeněk Hlačík, Ing. Václav Chaloupka
Pavel Dias (fotograf)
FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček), Studiová skupina (Music Conducted by Ondřej Soukup)
Outsider
Outsider
Outsider
film
featuretheatrical distribution
children
Czechoslovakia
1986
1985—1986
technical Screenplay approved 06/1985
literary Screenplay approved 23 July 1985
projection approval 13 October 1986
the first film copy approved 20 October 1986
withdrawal from distribution 1 October 1993
premiere 1 August 1987 /suitable for youths/
feature film
75 min
2 140 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
colour
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech
Festival: 3. filmový festival plzeňských dětí – FILMÁK ’97
1997
Plzeň / Czech Republic
Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu
1988
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Jiří Křižan
Festival: 27. festival filmů pro děti Gottwaldov
1987
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Jiří Schmitzer
Exhibition: 19. národní přehlídka filmů pro děti Ostrov
1987
Ostrov nad Ohří / Czechoslovakia
Festival: 27. festival filmů pro děti Gottwaldov
1987
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Festival: 38. filmový festival pracujících – léto ´87
1987
77 měst / Czechoslovakia
Festival: 27. festival filmů pro děti Gottwaldov
1987
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Robert Panc
Festival: 27. festival filmů pro děti Gottwaldov
1987
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Exhibition: 19. národní přehlídka filmů pro děti Ostrov
1987
Ostrov nad Ohří / Czechoslovakia
Robert Panc