Summary: The meaning of life is found in between our depression and our glory,today or tomorrow;fleeting.
The protagonist describes himself "the most ordinary of men". He has a an unsettling experience on the way home from work. It troubles him and he seeks an answer, a sign...he has faith-he thinks...his friends are kind,but seem not to share his trouble, but unhelpful, his wife tries to make him feel better,sees their happiness as tied to their success in getting by... he's brought his daughter a red kite and he has promised to fly it with her.
In its simple and realistic depiction of the lives of average folk, and the kinds of questions that haunt us all, this movie says more in 17 minutes than many a long novel or feature length movie. It has more of the feeling of a one-act play, everyone is seen in close-up vignette and condensed, but not without mercy.
The word that might sum up this little beauty is Inspiration. One wonders about the filmmaker, how he must have felt while making, completing this rough gem, and tossing it like a message of hope in a stoppered bottle into the wine-dark sea that was the cynical world of his day...now, 36 years later, if you get to see this flick at all you can't help feeling you found a bit of gold in a rusty can on the sea floor...a nearly lost, near-masterpiece.
The only descriptions I've found of this film were one-liners like "a father is depressed even while flying a kite" or "a depressed father bonds with a kite"...whoever wrote these lines didn't get it...maybe didn't even see it. The cinematographer later became known as a director in his own right..."Red Kite" is another jewel in the dusty crown of the National Film Board of Canada, from the golden age of 16mm films.