Every Step Counts: With Kazma to Santiago
The documentary film "Every Step Counts" presents an impressive and inspiring view of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Director Tadeáš Daněk and producer Patrick Diviš's team along with Bumerang Film provide not only beautiful shots of the landscape
and the atmosphere of the journey but also introduce us to a variety of personalities who undertake this journey.
As writer Václav Cílek says in this documentary: “A tourist travels to learn, a pilgrim journeys to be transformed.”
The main character and guide of the film is influencer and host Kamil Bartoška, known to the Czech audience by his artistic name Kazma. The creators intentionally contrast this controversial persona with the ancient and traditional journey. The main task of the creators was to bring various themes of pilgrimage to younger generations through this well-known personality.
Gradually, we learn the reasons why this person was chosen as our guide through his entire pilgrimage. Kazma Kazmitch initially takes it lightly and with humor (as is his nature). However, the journey he embarks on is 320 km long. Therefore, it becomes physically exhausting, and due to the "magic of pilgrimages," discomfort, and bad weather, he begins to face life's questions and deals with everyday human worries; thus, the journey is a great way to organize these thoughts, find some peace in his life, answers, and certainty, and essentially clear his head.
Everyone, regardless of gender, age, or status, is drawn to the pilgrimage - not just towards Santiago. On this journey, as we leave the noise of the world and enter silence, we have the space to reflect on our lives, our joys, our pains, and everything we are grateful for. By opening ourselves to this experience, we discover that everything we experience - from the smallest blessings to the toughest trials, as well as encounters with various people - is an important part of our journey, and nothing is entirely random. Our entire human life is, in fact, a journey that we embarked on right after birth.
Every pilgrim arrives at one answer, the same that our guide Kazma has found: “The journey is the goal.”
The documentary film also introduces us to other pilgrims and their life stories, depicting the diversity of motivations and expectations associated with this journey. Through their testimonies, "Every Step Counts" leads us to a deeper understanding of what the pilgrimage means for different people and how it can enrich their lives.
I believe that this documentary film will motivate everyone to embark on their own pilgrimage, whether at home in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia, or elsewhere abroad.
In the book by professor and writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (author of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion), we find a short poem that perfectly fits this theme and with which I would like to conclude this review:
Walking
The road goes on and on
forward, away from my gate.
It has already run far from me
and I must hurry after it.
On heavy feet I will be led
to a greater road than I know,
where many roads meet.
And then where? I do not know myself.
You can watch the film Every Step Counts on the Christian streaming platform Filmana: https://filmana.cz/film-kazdy-krok-se-pocita/
P.S.: This first part is loosely followed by the second part - Every Step Counts: Rome. Now, young people at the beginning of a promising career - actress Sára Rychlíková, businessman David Špunar, and YouTuber Jan Hanko - have set out on a new journey from Siena to Rome. But also a person who already has a successful career behind him - director Zdeněk Troška…
Marek Poštulka, Filmana