«The Good Soldier Svejk»

 

One Man against a World War

 

Yalta Film proudly presents a cartoon version of Jaroslav Hasek’s world-famous comic tale of stolen dogs with fake pedigrees, murderous monarchs, and a humble man’s struggle to survive “the war to end all wars”.

Josef Schweik, a Czech dog-trader who has already once been discharged from the army as a hopeless imbecile, is called up to fight in World War One. Despite his best efforts, the good-hearted and simple-minded Schweik makes his accident-prone and hilarious way towards the front line and seemingly certain death. However, Schweik has a better idea than dying in battle for his emperor…

The Good Soldier Schweik is a funny and very moving anti-war movie for those who like their humour black and their Christmases white.

 

Technique: 2D classical animation

Original Language: Russian / English (two lip-sync versions)

Length: about 82 minutes

Technical Parameters: 35mm negative, 1:1.85 screen ratio, Dolby 5.1 sound

Cinema Release:for Christmas 2008

 

Written by: Robert Crombie

Directed by: Rinat Gazizov and Manuk Depoyan

Produced by: Artur Novikov

 

Our story…

Our film opens in the old Czech city of Prague (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in the summer of 1914 - just before the start of the mass mechanised slaughter known to history as World War 1. Josef Schweik, a talkative old Czech soldier who now makes his living selling dodgy pedigree dogs, learns of the outbreak of the World War. In the local pub Schweik is soon trapped into insulting his emperor and arrested for "high treason". Under interrogation in prison, Schweik immediately reports that he has already been discharged from the army as a patent imbecile, which he then proves by volunteering to confess to all the charges against him - no matter what they might be. The judge duly sends Schweik to the lunatic asylum, from which he is soon released to make space for the soldiers shell-shocked and crazed at the front.

Schweik, though half-crippled by his rheumatic knee, is then called up for active service. He pushes himself in a wheelchair through the streets of Prague, waving his crutches, and shouting patriotic slogans. The army recruitment board, however, immediately suspect Schweik of being a “simulator” rather than a wounded but willing patriot, and our hero is placed in a punishment "hospital". In the hospital Schweik's rheumatism is mocked by his fellow new recruits, some of whom "simulate" their own illnesses so well they even die from their ailments.

The hospital patients are then forced into chapel, and we meet the hard-drinking army chaplain Otto Katz. The cynical chaplain takes a liking to Schweik, and whilst his fellow new recruits are trained up for the front, Otto Katz makes Schweik his new personal orderly.

However, the chaplain then loses Schweik at cards to a fellow officer, Lieutenant Lukas. Schweik steals a dog to please his new master, unfortunately choosing the very hound of the regimental colonel. Lieutenant Lukas is discovered walking the stolen dog, and Schweik and Lukas are sent to almost certain death at the front line as a punishment.

On the troop train headed towards the front Schweik meets up with many of his old friends. The train is bombed, and the battalion sets off on a march across the winter countryside. Sent on ahead, Schweik gets lost, and then finds an abandoned Russian uniform and puts it on, and then is taken prisoner by his own side.

Schweik escapes hanging as a traitor by a hair's breadth, and he is returned to his battalion. It is Christmas Eve, and Schweik is forgiven his "desertion". The next morning the battalion is sent into the front line trenches in readiness for an attack. As the bombardment ceases, the “idiot” Schweik cheerily calls out "Happy Christmas!" to the Russian soldiers only fifty meters away across no man's land. And then…

To get more details on "The Good Soldier Svejk" project go to www.svejkfilm.com.