The Kite (2019)
★★★½ — The Kite (2019)
Martin Smatana is a Slovak animator whose short films tend to work in the space where children's storytelling and genuinely adult emotion overlap. The Kite (Sarkan in Slovak) is a co-production between Czech, Polish, and Slovak partners, with FAMU (the prestigious Prague film school) among the backers, which places it firmly in the tradition of Central European animated shorts that punch well above their modest budgets. Smatana made the film in cut-out stop-motion animation, a labour-intensive technique that gives the piece its distinctive, handcrafted texture. Running at around thirteen minutes, it sits in the short film festival circuit rather than commercial release, and picked up considerable attention on that circuit in the years following its completion.
A-Z World Movie Challenge Slovakia The Kite (Sarkan), the 2019 short film, is a quiet, deeply moving piece about grief, memory, and the fragile threads that tie us to those we’ve lost. In just around 15 minutes, it says more about love and absence than many feature-length films manage. The story follows a young boy who flies a kite with his Grandad. A simple object that becomes a vessel for remembrance, connecting him to someone gone too soon. There’s little dialogue, but you feel everything through the silence, the gestures, the way he holds on. The art style is stunning. hand crafted animation with a soft, embroidered quality that feels both dreamlike and painfully real. Colours shift with emotion: warm golds for memory, cold blues for loneliness. Every frame is composed like a poem. And the soundtrack (minimal, haunting, built around a simple motif) elevates the emotion without ever overpowering it. Together, they create a sense of intimacy and sorrow that lingers long after it ends. It’s not a film about closure, really, but about connection. About how a place, a toy, a breeze in the trees can bring someone back, if only for a moment. It’s subtle, tender, and beautifully respectful in its sadness. Brief, but unforgettable. A small masterpiece about the weight of what’s left behind.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2019 | Watched: 2025-09-04
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK
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