To the Attention of Children

Sometimes, directors fantasize about getting even with critics that wrote bad reviews about their films. We know that because a few of them take it one step further and put these fantasies in the films. For instance M. Night Shyamalan created this horrible critic character and prepared a painful end for him in his latest film LADY IN THE WATER. Here is another idea for Mr. Shyamalan: put a critic in a theater with 1,000 children, fix the camera and let him/her watch the film and observe the process of watching or trying to write the review. I come up with this idea or rather nightmare due to personal experience.

The story begins this morning at the screening of LOTTE FROM GADGETVILLE (LEIUTAJAKULA LOTTE, Estonia, Latvia), an animation film for children. I mean only for children. It is like the kind of cartoons that were on Turkish TV (but I think it is international) on Saturday mornings ten years ago. We can even give a name as a clue: Scooby-Doo. The film was looking really old school as drawing and trying to encourage the children about science. There is no reason mention that no violence was involved. It is kind of difficult to talk about a plot or story but we try really hard. The setting of the story is a small town and there is a competition of new inventions that Lotte, our main character who is an energetic dog, is involved.

The target audience of the film was children as you can conclude from my experience of watching the film with 1,000 of them. Although it is said that the film was for children five years upwards my observation was contrary. The seven-year-old that was sitting beside me rolled her eyes all the time and showed signs of being really bored. Nevertheless, the four-year-old on the other side was enthusiastic about the film. So now you have a clear picture of the audience. What about if you are a parent taking your children to this film? We might add that this is the only possibility for you to watch the film. No grown-up could see it willingly. Well, here is a solution for parents: just swallow a sleeping pill.

Nil Kural

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2007