Little women. Jürgen Brouwer’s family fantasy “Gritta from Rat Castle” refers to a galaxy of typical, but very, very interesting European fairy tales about princesses and princes, about large castles and very small people who once find themselves on the periphery of the whole world.
So, Gritta is the daughter of the unsuccessful mechanic Julius Ortel, who one day receives a large order to manufacture a part for the royal throne. For him, this can be a chance of a lifetime, but for the young Gritta, it means exile to the nearest monastery, because the newly-minted Princess Anna, Julius’ new wife, does not want to tolerate competition. In the monastery, the girl does not despair, makes friends with other pupils and runs away with them, learning about the conspiracy against the king.
The plot of the picture of Brouwer absorbs “with the world by thread” – or rather, from a fairy tale on the plot: many classical European folklore motifs are easily guessed here, from Hans the Pied Piper to Snow White. With the only difference that the local Hans - Gritta, quite friends with nimble rodents, and instead of seven dwarves here girls, pupils of the monastery. There are, by the way, seven. In general, allusions and references here are read in every frame, and this is very, very nice - children will be quite amused to find and read them, and adults - test themselves once again for knowledge of classical plots.
The cinema is technically made simply, but tastefully - the interiors of the castles are beautiful, the natural landscapes seem to be written out from Sargent's paintings, and many moments of the film are remembered and long deposited in memory thanks to a pleasant visual series - whether it is the introduction, the ending, when the walls of the monastery are replaced by royal chambers and decorations, or the most beautiful episode of bathing on the river.
All the actors played with dignity - but, first of all, I would like to highlight the main characters, girls, as they are tied to the main narrative and most of the film we watch their adventures. Nadia Clear in the role of Gritta brilliantly conveyed the character and temper of her heroine, well, thanks to the firm and strong-willed, but, nevertheless, kind and sensitive look of the actress herself in her heroine are invariably read to become, nobility and firmness of spirit, no matter what life situations on the plot she was.
The work of the cameraman and the work of the production artist also pull on the highest score - especially since the film's director Jürgen Brouwer himself was the cameraman, and Alfred Hirschmeier and Christian Dorst, with a very limited budget, perfectly conveyed the spirit of a certain timeless place, most similar to the Middle Ages. So you expect that the frame is about to include the Cat in Boots or the Dwarf Nose, but the movie is not a collection of fairy tales (like, for example, the masterpiece “The Tenth Kingdom”), it is trying to write its own.
In 1986, a year after its release, "Gritta of the Rat Castle" won the United Nations Children's Fund Award at the Berlinale, and it is clear why. Even despite all the difficulties and hardships through which the main character has to go through in the plot, she withstands all the trials and comes out of them as a winner - good here always defeats evil, and bad people get what they deserve. Without a doubt, children need films where once again in a playful form the most important morality of this world is spoken - about love for close and noble feelings that move us forward.
"Gritta" turned out to be a worthy representative of children's fantasy with a recognizable European flavor, where not everything is as smooth and sunny as it seems at first glance, but where the main characters always find a way out of the situation. The movie is very short, lasts a little more than an hour, which means that during this time neither children nor adults can get tired. The adventures of Gritta are very exciting thanks to the beautiful surroundings, the spirit of an old fairy tale, Nadia’s acting and worthy directing.
10 out of 10