Sam Fichtner ’14 presented his short film “A Chlapec: And the Boy” on Tuesday night in Smith Auditorium. The film, which Fichtner directed himself, was the product of his fall semester study at Prague’s renowned film school FAMU International.
Fichtner is a film studies minor. “And the Boy” was his first experience actually making a film.
“Our film department, intellectually engaging and comprehensive as it is, focuses on studies, history, and theory,” he said. “In going abroad I was seeking to get some hands-on experience.”
Fichtner’s desire to create films landed him in Prague, one of the global centers of film. He chose a film production program with CET Academic Programs, which provides students with access to world-class resources, including materials from Barrandov Studios, the largest film studio in Europe.
Fichtner’s academic work was tailored to prepare him the culminating project of the semester: creating a professionally made short feature.
The composition of “And the Boy” began when Fichtner started his semester at FAMU.
He and his team, which included three other American students with diverse areas of expertise in film, devoted countless nights in pubs and coffee shops to develop a pitch that FAMU would accept.
“It’s about a month and a half of getting your ego shattered day in and day out,” said Fichtner.
Fichtner and his collaborators wrestled with this task for weeks, finally settling on a concept that would take full advantage of their unique location and access to professional resources: a period piece set in the Czech countryside during World War II.
“We wanted to make something that we could have only made while in Prague,” said Fichtner. “We had at Barrandov Studios an amazing supply of costumes, and things that we would never have anywhere else in the world. So we said, ‘Let’s just go all out.’”
FAMU provided Fichtner’s team with a production manager to scout actors and find locations, as well as a translator to aid them with communicating their ideas about the Czech script to their Czech cast.
The language barrier presented a unique challenge for Fichtner when it came to directing.
“It was an experience dealing with a translator trying to explain to a kid how emotional he should be and just watching someone else maybe get it right and maybe get it wrong,” he said.
With all of these tools in place, a filming period of four long days, and a painstaking editing process, “And the Boy” was finally completed.
“And the Boy” takes place on a morning during the winter of 1941-1942, a time when the Germans were starting to send Czech Jews to concentration camps.
The film provides a glimpse into this traumatic period through the eyes of an unnamed boy.
The plot is simple but disturbing: it begins when Nazis unexpectedly arrive at the boy’s house.
His parents sneak him out the back so can flee into the woods, disoriented and quite alone. Gunshots signal the murder of his parents shortly afterwards.
The anxiety the film produces offers the audience a haunting look into the boy’s mind as he grapples with confusion and loss.
Fichtner sees the film’s ambiguity as central to its goal. With “And the Boy,” he aimed not to recount the particular events of an individual person’s day, but instead to present an allegory about the horrors of war and their detrimental psychological effects.
“While we were specific about the time and place of our setting, we wanted the effect to be that of any war, and the enemy as a projection of the audience’s enemy in regards to war,” said Fichtner.
Relating the film’s title to this theme, Fichtner said, “There’s the war, and the soldiers, and the crimes, and the enemies, and the families, and the hiding, and the camps, and running, and the homes... and the boy.”
With this experience behind him, Fichtner hopes to become involved in directing, writing, or producing films after his time at Bowdoin.
“Luckily I have few years to decide where I want to take my first step when the time comes,” he said. “Before I decide I need to make a few more films to understand the process more.”