Czarne stopy

Filmed with an amateur cast of real-life scouts during a real-life scout camp, I found this movie enchanting when I saw it fortuitously on TV in the Czech Republic.

The story and performances capture the essence of late childhood and adolescence in an innocent yet unsentimental way. The children's performances are natural and delightful, belying the fact that they have no previous acting experience. There are moments of humour, mischief, coming-of-age and tenderness.

Though dated, it stands well as a period piece. I have used this film recently in language classes with pre-teen secondary students who have found it almost as engaging I do! It's not an easy piece to find, though if you do manage to track down a copy, good English subtitles are available from opensubtitles.org.