Specialist director of children’s films Ota Koval drew inspiration from a book by Jiří Melíšek to create Kaňka do pohádky (Blot in a Fairy Tale, 1981), a film about the incredible adventures of a pair of siblings. Thanks to a magic ink blot discovered in a collection of fairytales by Josef Lada the two are repeatedly able to enter the book’s story world. But just as eight-year-old Vendulka and her older brother Ondra can cross the line between fiction and reality, so too can characters from the other side, such as the fairytale boy Honza or a cow that escapes from a fairytale farmer and ends up in the Prague Metro. The story also features writer and painter Lada himself. It is to his studio that the inquisitive girl finds her way… The imaginative narrative, whose visual tricks were provided by Adolf Hejzlar (Arabela – Arabella, 1979, Tři veteráni – The three Veterans, 1983, Rumburak – Rumburak, 1984), provides easy but good quality family entertainment. The role of Vendulka was given to popular child actress Žaneta Fuksová who played numerous film roles between 1978 and 1988. Another popular child star of that time, the now director Filip Renč, made a cameo appearance as a boy standing by a billboard.
Nobody came to pick up little Vendulka from school. She walks alone and sad, because its her eighth birthday today. At home she finds her older brother, Ondra and congratulations from her parents on a tape recorder. A present is hidden in the piano - a book with beautiful illustrations by Josef Lada, called "For Children". Vendulka sees a big black blot on the first page and finds that everything what you put on the blot disappears. When she steps on the blot herself, she finds herself in the artist Lada's studio. The artist gives her bread and butter and tells her that he is preparing an exhibition. Vendulka can hear that Ondra is calling her and she comes back home through a blot painted on the wall. She is going with her brother by underground to meet her mother, a pianist returning from a tour. The car is packed by passengers and Vendulka disappears into a fairytale. She meets Marjánka, tending a little cow. While Vendulka is coming back, the enlivened cow comes with her to the underground, which causes a panic. The girl reveals the secret about the blot to her brother and he can join her. Ondra first fights in the enlivened picture, but then he makes friends with a boy, Honza. The farmer from the fairy tale wants to get his cow back. But the cow ended up in the meantime in a Lost Property Office. The children put the cow back into the book, but the cow must be picked up from the office by their parents. The children admit what has happened to them. However the parents, as adults, are not able to travel through the blot. The father takes the book to a laboratory, but the tests don't show anything. Ondra takes Honza to the real world to show him the airport. He presents him to his mother as a friend, with whom he is training running. Honza is wondering about everything and, at the airport, he causes an upheaval. Ondra calls to Vendulka to come to help with the book. The little girl has to go to her father to the research institute and Honza escapes to the picture in the end. But he is wearing Ondra's clothes and he follows him, as he wants to get them back. The children from the neighbourhood take the book away from Vendulka and, unfortunately, drop it in fresh concrete. At the exhibition, the little girl finds the same book of Lada's pictures and, thanks to that, Ondra comes back. Then Vendulka gives the book to a nosy boy with a pram.
Vendulka Prokopcová
Ondra, Vendulčin bratr
Honza
maminka Vendulky a Ondry
Václav, tatínek Vendulky a Ondry
Marjánka
Prcek
malíř spisovatel Josef Lada
sedlák
strejc Matěj
babička s kočárkem
stařenka před domem
žena v telefonní budce
muž u telefonní budky
zřízenec ve Ztrátách a nálezech
výpravčí
zřízenec metra
zřízenec metra
zřízenec metra
zřízenec metra
uklízečka v metru
uklízečka v metru
dívka v okně
příslušník VB
zřízenec na výstavě
zřízenec na výstavě
kluk u plakátu
hlas krávy
hlas Mikeše, prasete a psa
Zdeněk Podhola
Ivan Ernyei, Jan Petrů, Dana Smržová, Josef Pavlík
Věra Lukášová, Petr Prejda, Eliška Sekavová
Alena Ladová, Jan Vrána
Z. Kopková (klapka), Miloš Schmiedberger (fotograf)
Bedřich Smetana (Má vlast /Vltava/), Bedřich Smetana (Luisina polka), Jan Křtitel Vaňhal
FISYO (Music Conducted by František Belfín)
Song Composer Štěpán Lucký
Writer of Lyrics Pavel KoptaVladimír Šefl
Singer Bambini di Praga
Song Composer Štěpán Lucký
Writer of Lyrics Pavel KoptaVladimír Šefl
Singer Bambini di Praga
Kaňka do pohádky
Kaňka do pohádky
Blot in a Fairy Tale
film
featuretheatrical distribution
fairytale
Czechoslovakia
1981
1980—1981
literary Screenplay approved 29 April 1980
start of filming 25 August 1980
technical Screenplay approved 2 September 1980
end of filming 27 January 1981
projection approval 4 March 1981
withdrawal from distribution 31 March 1994
premiere 13 November 1981 /suitable for youths/
Dramaturgická skupina Oty Hofmana, Ota Hofman (vedoucí dramaturgické skupiny)
feature film
70 min
2 028 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
colour
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech
Festival: 13. mezinárodní festival filmů pro děti a mládež Giffoni Valle Piana
1983
Giffoni Valle Piana / Italy
Festival: 20. mezinárodní festival filmů pro děti a mládež Gijón
1982
Gijón / Spain