Tomshek was doing his daily exercise
because he was very concerned about his health.
For the last three nights he'd had a very pleasant dream:
He would be walking down the street, lightly pushing off with his left foot,
soar three metres above the ground,
and drop gently to the pavement.
In the dream, he wasn't surprised in the slightest.
It seemed to him very natural and very pleasant.
The only strange thing was
that no one had ever experienced it before.
The Man Who Could Fly. Based on a tale by Karel Capek
screenwriter Boris Kryzhanovskiy director Yevgeniy Sivokon art director Eduard Kirich
animators Vladimir Goncharov, Yefrem Pruzhanskiy, Vladimir Dakhno,
Yevgeniy Sivokon, David Cherkasskiy, Mark Draytsun, Nina Churilova
composer F. Bryl camera Anatoliy Gavrilov script editor Tadeush Pavlenko
sound Leonid Moroz narrator Aleksey Polevoy
assistants A. Balov, V. Ryabkina, Yu. Srebnitskaya
It wasn't until late that night that Tomshek returned home.
In the following days he trained hard.
At night, of course, and in secluded places.
Finally, Tomshek couldn't take it any more...
He really wanted to make his flights known to the public.
After all, it was so easy to fly: you push off, you flap your arms a little,
and off you fly like a bird.
Tomshek was clearly having bad luck with his conversation partners.
Luckily, he remembered that his neighbour worked at a newspaper.
A reporter for the sports section, as he recalled.
"You ought to be handled by experts.
I'll set it all up," the reporter said.
Tomshek became flustered.
Now he really didn't know where to put his hands,
how to breathe and where his centre of gravity was.
"God, I wish they'd get off my back," thought Tomshek.
Then he jumped two more times,
but further attempts had to be abandoned.
From that day on, Tomshek could no longer fly.
Artistic Collective for Fictive Animation of the Kiev Studio for Popular Science Films, 1968
The End Subs by Eus & Niffiwan, July 2025