The Story of the Voyages

Marta's small brother May can sense gold wherever it is. That is why he is taken one day. Marta sets out to find him. On the road she meets Orlando, a wandering wise man who is trying to build flying machines, and the two go on together. Dragons, towers, an outbreak of plague and greedy people cross their path. Aleksandr Mitta's Soviet fairy tale looks like a children's film but its tone is not soft at all. Andrey Mironov plays Orlando. The telling sets up gold not as a blessing but as a curse: the brother's gift is the cause of everything that happens to him. The design draws on medieval painting, and the film is dark enough to frighten children.