Krizácek (Little Crusader), Václav Kadrnka, Czech Republic , 2017, 90’, OV with Spanish subtitles

This is one of those films that seems to come from another time, which could have been filmed more than fifty years ago, related to mediaeval stories and to films by Bresson and Tarkovski. Partly, what we propose with the retrospective of Andréi Tarkovski precisely consists of creating a dialogue between his films and examples of films from our time. In this case we will try to get two infancies to establish a dialogue: between those of young Ivan and of Janik.

Janik is the only son of the knight Bořek. One day, after preparing his suit of armour and his wooden sword, he decides to go out to conquer the world. When his father discovers his absence, he goes out to find him and starts a long journey through the fields and villages of that ancient land. A mediaeval road movie? Yes. It is also a minimalist, abstract, marvellously filmed, small, subtle film shaped like an altarpiece or classical Italian painting. The story is an adaptation of a poem by Czech writer Jaroslav Vrchlick. And it is the second film by its director, which premièred at the Karlovy Vary Festival in 2017 and received the Crystal Globe for Best Film.