The Kite
A short animated film for children about the loss of a loved one.
In the quiet of the countryside, a young boy visits his beloved grandfather. In this world, life is represented by physical layers; the boy is thick with the promise of years to come, while his grandfather has been weathered by time to a frail, delicate thinness.
Their bond is explored through the simple, joyful act of flying a kite. As the grandfather imparts his wisdom, he grows ever lighter. The film culminates in a gentle and metaphorical farewell, as he becomes as light as a sheet of paper and is peacefully lifted into the sky, not as an end, but as a graceful return to the elements.
My goal with "The Kite" was to explore the concept of death in a way that feels gentle and hopeful. Through the symbolic bond between the little boy and his grandpa, the film acknowledges that none of us are here forever. However, it ultimately seeks to show that death doesn’t have to be an end, but can be seen as a peaceful transformation and the continuation of a spirit's journey.
During his flight, the boy sees the landscape from above as a mosaic of fields. We intentionally designed this to look like a patchwork blanket. This detail is a direct homage to my own childhood, inspired by the very same kind of blanket I used to sleep under during summer holidays at my grandparents' house. It’s a personal touch meant to infuse the film's world with a sense of warmth and nostalgia.
During the building of the sets, we visited probably every second-hand shop in Prague. We bought a lot of cheap clothes with different patterns and colors to be used in the film, because there are four different seasons in the entire film, and each has its own color palette. Also a lot of our friends donated their old clothes to the film, so we could re-use them instead of throwing it to trash can.
The Kite was premiered at Berlinale 2019, selected to semifinals of Student Academy Awards, included in the Film Collection of MoMA and won over 60 international awards.
english press - colossal, short of the week, zippy frames, skwigly, atlanta film and TV, the slovak spectator, stopmotion magazine
