The film contains no words; it just observes some children watching a puppet show. In 10 intense minutes, most human feelings appear on the open faces of children – joy, fright, pity and happiness. On the stage puppets fight, while the face of the child reflects the eternal battle between good and evil, the invisible human soul.
The whole film is composed of one shot. Juris Podnieks shot it all in one take, no editing needed! Yes, but this piece of life did not fall from heaven. I had been preparing for this for 4 years or perhaps the whole my life. From my childhood I remember words from the sacred book: “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. And exactly this is what we shot in the darkness of the theatre – an image of an invisible living soul!
It’s simple – during the whole film we see the face of a child who is observing a puppet show. We see how his soul reacts to a battle between good and evil. We do not see how Dr Dolittle fights with evil pirates, but we observe the swordfight on the child’s face. We had to grow into this simplicity. To see ready-made film subjects in life, their artistic value, you should be in touch with life, with heart and soul.
Lev Tolstoj said: “You can’t write a story without leaving a piece of flesh and blood in the inkpot”. To rework those great words, it’s not possible to make an emotional film without leaving traces of the soul on the screen. Perhaps those soul traces are connections to our heroes, no matter if they are children, sinners or prophets, making our old documentaries still up-to-date.

Herz Frank