This Girl in a Broomstick, from 1972, belongs to the group of farces that constituted the successful comedies of the Soviet period, mostly of the late sixties and early seventies of the last century. In this case, there are, however, two important particularities: it is a Czechoslovak production and it is clearly aimed at a younger audience.

Don't expect to find here the insightful irony of a Jiri Menzel, the poetic drama of a Ján Kadár or even the audacious experimentalism of a Jaromil Jires, this is a simple film, what would pass today for a modest television film for teenagers.

But it still has some fun moments and, above all, it is an irresistible exercise in nostalgia, for those who grew up watching films like this.

Looking round for Czech movies with English subtitles online,I found a fairly short title that looked like a fun family film,which led to me joining the girl and grabbing a broomstick.

The plot:

Failing at school,training witch Saxana finds an old magic book which contains a spell that will allow her to interact with humans for 48 hours.Performing the spell,Saxana soon finds herself whisked away from the land of witchcraft to the land of humans.Whilst she gets on with some of the humans,Saxana soon discovers that there are some humans who want to use her magic for their own means.

View on the film:

Leaving any allegorical/political statement in the top hat,co- writer/(along with Hermína Franková & Milos Macourek) director Václav Vorlícek casts a sweet magical spell where stop/start effects and puffs of smoke send Saxana across the sky.Making Saxana stand out in unique clothes, Vorlícek caps the family flick in a charmingly quirky atmosphere,by making every spell offer a funny glimpse of animals and large,dusty books filled with magic.

Escaping from the school,the screenplay by Franková/Macourek & Vorlícek give the fantasy an adventure movie edge,as very funny slap-stick sight gags are brewed with wonderfully animated characters,which include a vampire farmer.Whilst Sazana is given a good level of zest,the writers do appear to struggle in coming up with challenges for her,as Sazana gets outsmarted one too many times.Looking marvellous in early Goth Rock dress, Petra Cernocká gives a great performance as Saxana,thanks to Cernocká threading Saxana's naïve behaviour around humans with a strikingly sassy punk side over not following orders and being herself,as Saxana learns to be the girl on the broomstick.

What a fun this movie! It's a continuous flow of gags from beginning to end, a mine of ideas and fantasy. The "theme" - a beginner witch is trying her first spells – has nothing to do with the real witchcraft, because it's a mere narrative handle to build funny, hilarious, ironic situations. A very successful handle indeed, because the plot runs riot with very entertaining scenes. What makes this film so funny is its not taking itself seriously and its joking without malice on persons and themes. The school teachers turned into rabbits and locked into a hutch, the pupils who suddenly get donkey ears and their she-teacher walrus teeth, the boy who "looses" his head and tries to replace it with a clay head of Napoleon.... these are just some of the situations of this movie. I kept on laughing almost the whole film through. Special effects are simple, but not at all childish and unsuccessful. After all, with good ideas, modern technologies and heaps of money are not necessary for making a good movie. The Czechs were great in the fairy tale genre, and had at least one precious quality which the other Eastern Europe countries did not have: the absence of political propaganda. The Russians or the Germans of GDR couldn't refrain from putting it in almost every movie. And the political propaganda spoils the magic and the lightness of a fairy tale. In this one you will find none. Somebody says that it is an ancestor of the Harry Potter saga. Nothing of the kind! The child wizard takes himself tremendously seriously, and pushes the poor children of the real world to emulation. This is just an innocently funny movie, where spells are almost laughed at, because they are only a way to.... laugh.