Tonda, Slávka a kouzelné světlo

Filme de animação familiar sobre a amizade entre um menino brilhante e uma menina com uma imaginação fértil, que vivem num prédio de apartamentos que reflete uma sociedade obcecada pelo poder, ansiedades e a incapacidade de ouvir um ao outro, consegue cativar tanto crianças como adultos. Aborda profundamente o tema da aceitação da diferença e mostra sensivelmente como a compreensão mútua e a partilha, apesar das diferenças, podem levar a uma maior autoaceitação. O filme transmite valiosas lições sem a necessidade de as explicar literalmente e mistura elementos mágicos de fantasia com as angústias do crescimento real, parentalidade e indícios de outros assuntos mais sérios, sem perder o brilho de uma história de conto de fadas. Além disso, trabalha bela e conscientemente com cores e iluminação. (04/01/2024)

Czech (and Slovak) animation has again risen to the world-class level in recent years. This has most recently been confirmed by the Czech-Slovak-Hungarian stop-motion film Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light, which received an award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Thanks to its amazing colours, lights (!) and original visual ideas, Filip Pošivač’s feature-length debut looks so good that I wanted to slowly pause every shot and savour it for a moment. In terms of its superb craftsmanship alone (for example, Denisa Buranová’s dynamic cinematography, which takes something from live-action filmmaking and contributes to the originality of the creative concept), this is an extraordinary film in which it never once seemed to me that the filmmakers made any compromises, let alone skimped on anything. And the story, written by Jana Šrámková, is also exceptional, not only in the domestic context, in the way that it is both comprehensible for children (judging from their reactions) and appealing to adults on a deeper level as it tells the story of the little big adventure of an eleven-year-old boy who glows. Since this film has quite a few thematic levels (depression, parenthood, self-realisation), you may find a different key to interpreting it, but for me the main thing was the unusually sensitive (and extremely relatable) narrative about the experience of a child who is neurodivergent (or simply different in some way) and – despite his loving, hyper-protective parents – tries to find his place in society, which is represented in the film by a single multi-storey apartment building. Based on the example of the titular duo, the film shows that it is quite beneficial to meet people or at least one person with whom you can identify (Tony is the only one who can see Shelly’s imaginings) and accept yourself in your own differentness to such a degree that you gain the courage to step outside of your own private (fantasy) world and to share with others your own inner light, which you had long seen as a limitation. Some have the good fortune to do that when they are eleven, some when they are twenty-nine. A beautiful film. (07/10/2023)