Little Crusader / Krizácek

Despite having only two featured films, it is necessary from now on to highlight the Czech Václv Kardrnka’s filmography, a work full of delicacy, light and simplicity. Already in his debut, Eighty Letters, there was the look of a filmmaker who completely trusts the value of a sober staging. In his new film, Little Crusader, the care of every shot reaches an even greater refinement. Based on the epic poem by Jaroslav Vrchilický about the mythical Children’s Crusade that has inspired literature so much, this film approaches the historical narrative free of any distraction: while the father was sleeping, his son, a little boy who could barely take care of himself, puts on an armour and leaves home. Everything is encapsulated in this search of the son. In Kadrnka, the formal is linked to the thrust. In his cinema, the framing is like a canvas where one or two elements, one or two sounds, one or two sunbeams are enough to set the emotion in our body. Little Crusader, winner of the Best Film Award at Karlovy Vary 2017, has an out of the ordinary handcrafted aura and evokes the best Bresson, because of its faith in human spirituality and because of its confidence in the endless expressive capacity of the most suggestive cinema. FERNANDO VÍLCHEZ