Some more detailed descriptions come from:
https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/cs/film/856/kruh
Edited and translated into English:
Annotation
Screenwriter and director
Věra Šimková-Plívová created another film story with her long-time collaborator
Drahuše Králová, in which she attempts to capture the life of today's children. This time, she chose a somewhat melodramatic theme: the main heroine is a ten-year-old girl who must cope with an unexpected health handicap.
Ten-year-old
Fanynka is a promising sports gymnast. After her parents' separation, she lives alone with her father in an apartment building. Her life changes drastically when she suffers a serious injury during warm-ups at a major competition just before a potential victory. It is extremely difficult for the girl to accept that she can no longer walk. With the effort she is accustomed to from sports, she tries to improve her health condition. She receives strong support from her surroundings, including her father, grandparents, her little friend
Dominika, and her classmates. After some time, she manages to stand with the help of crutches.
According to the director's explanation, the girl is surrounded by several metaphorical circles: the first is the circle of loneliness, resulting from her efforts to excel in sports and school, which alienates her from other children. The second circle consists of her relationship with her divorced parents:
Fanynka struggles to forgive her mother for leaving. Another circle is formed by her friendships with little
Dominika, her grandparents, and eventually a boy she meets during summer vacation. A significant circle is, of course, the constraining circle of illness.
Fanynka must learn to break free from or overcome some of these circles, and with the help of others, she succeeds. A metaphor for these circles is a giant inflatable training ring in her apartment, which she uses for exercises.
The creators made the film in the spirit of their previous works. They process serious themes (family breakdown, child ostracization, life with disabilities) in a form understandable to children, but at the same time, they idealize and smooth them out excessively. Everyone in the film is kind and pleasant. Only one envious classmate,
Gábina, constantly criticizes
Fanynka, but even she eventually becomes wiser and apologizes.
The opening scenes from gymnastics training and competitions are particularly interesting. Much of the film takes place in the countryside, in a picturesque and well-maintained cottage and its surroundings. Various animals and traditional poetic visions are also present.
The main girl role is played by
Pavlína Hermanová from Zlín, who is the national gymnastics champion in her category.
Plot
Ten-year-old
Fanynka Machová rushes from gymnastics training to school. She coldly rejects her pregnant mother, who brings her fruit.
Fanynka lives only with her father and cannot accept her mother's departure.
During class, the gym teacher praises
Fanynka as an example for the other children. Under the leadership of talkative
Gábina Čermáková, they take revenge on her outside. But
Fanynka is used to it. In her apartment, she accidentally locks in five-year-old
Dominika from next door, who came to visit her.
Dominika's mother,
Mrs. Pražáková, has to call a locksmith.
On another occasion,
Fanynka forgets to pick up
Dominika from training, and
Mrs. Pražáková is upset again. Additionally, some punks gave the little girl a colorful mohawk.
Fanynka is rude to her mother on the phone but then pleads with her to come to the championships.
During the competition,
Fanynka is the best, and her mother, in the audience, is happy. Her father, a construction foreman, watches the live sports broadcast from his work site.
Fanynka warms up on the horizontal bar in a small gym and falls. Her mother does not see it because she suddenly goes into labor.
After a spinal injury,
Fanynka becomes paralyzed in her lower body and is sent to a children's rehabilitation center near Košumberk. Her father and grandparents visit her. Her mother has given birth to a baby boy,
Adámek.
At school,
Gábina takes pleasure in
Fanynka's misfortune, but the kind teacher scolds her.
Desperate,
Fanynka tears up a gymnastics magazine that featured a big article about her. However, her gymnastics teammates bring her more copies and a videotape of her routines. Among the visitors is also
Dominika, who gives her a lucky charm and tries to befriend the silent patient
Bára, who lost her parents and sister in a car accident.
Fanynka remembers her gymnastics training during painful rehabilitation. She gives
Bára the lucky charm from
Dominika.
A new psychologist, who uses a wheelchair, arrives. He tells
Fanynka she will also get a wheelchair temporarily, which is better than staying in bed all the time.
Disabled children watch
Fanynka's videotape. Her father takes her home. Before leaving, she gives
Bára a rabbit that her grandparents sent.
Bára finally speaks, saying "Vrtule."
At home,
Fanynka reluctantly goes outside in her wheelchair. She meets a blind boy at a crosswalk, and they help each other across the street.
Her mother visits when her father is not home, and they reconcile.
At school, all the children are kind to her except
Gábina, who gets spaghetti dumped on her head by a classmate.
Fanynka spends the summer with her grandparents. She befriends
Krajíček, a boy who photographs birds.
After an accident in the lake, he rescues her.
In the fall, she arrives at school on horseback, cheered by her classmates. She jumps into their hands and walks into sixth grade with crutches.