Peter & the Wolf 2006
An animated retelling set to Prokofiev's suite. Peter is a slight lad, solitary, locked out of the woods by his protective grandfather
An animated retelling set to Prokofiev's suite. Peter is a slight lad, solitary, locked out of the woods by his protective grandfather
A static camera observes a room as it slowly fills with thirty-six characters from different stages of life, as they move in loops through an absurd dance of social disconnection.
One day Moomintroll wakes to notice that grey dust is covering everything in the Moominvalley. He runs to ask the philosophical Muskrat if he knows what is happening, who advises him that things tend to look like this before an awful fate coming from the sky hits the Earth. With the help of his father, Moominpappa, Moomintroll and his close friends Sniff and Snufkin build a raft and head out on a challenging journey to the observatory in the Lonely Mountains hoping to find out more from the wise professors there. The friends have to overcome several adversities in order to make it there. When they arrive, they find the professors deep in calculations. They reveal that a comet will reach the Earth in four days, four hours, four minutes and 44 seconds.
"Maska" is the latest animated film of Quay brothers, directors and puppet animators, with the music composed by Krzysztof Penderecki. The film is an adaptation of Stanisław Lem’s short story of the same title. The action of “Maska” is set in a technologically developed but, at the same time, feudal world. Beautiful Duenna was created in order to carry out certain mission. However, she will be forced to choose between accomplishing the task she was created for and love.
In this haunting short fiction film, a group of Jewish children and their teacher are herded into an ambulance by Nazis; the vehicle, ordinarily representing comfort and safety, becomes the group’s death chamber. Morgenstern’s presentation of the incident serves as a metaphor for the horror of the Holocaust, and provides a powerful trigger for discussion of the disturbing issues raised by the film. The figure of the children's’ teacher specifically parallels Janusz Korcak (1879-1942), a famous Jewish educator who ran an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto and died with his young charges at Treblinka.
A young poet falling in love. A city that awaits a drama to unfold. A time of sadness and conformity, a time of decisions. There is light, there is hope, there is poetry behind the dark clouds of our world.
Mysterious creatures that have landed on the ground in a flying saucer, encouraging the people they meet to undergo experimental research in exchange for gaining youth and immortality.
A young man gets stuck in an elevator just as it passes the 13th floor.
A woodsman find and abandoned child in the forest and raises him as his son. When the child reaches 10, the woodsman suddenly goes blind. The kid is determined to help his "father" and answers a mysterious call. He must seek the Spirit of Darkness and defeat him if the woodsman is to see again. During his search for the Spirit he encounters a friendly monster who helps the boy in his quest. They are able to survive every dangerous test on their way and the final confrontation.
Short film by Zbig Rybczyński.
A boy accidentally gets involved in a fight between partisans and a German patrol.
Tichy is caught by a storm on the side road, and therefore forced to seek shelter in strange looking house. He is welcomed by Profesor Zazul, who devoted his life to cloning experiments. Based on a short story by Stanisław Lem featured in Memories of Ijon Tichy.
An animated short film from 1987 that deals with the incarceration of a man in a dark cell from where there is no escape.
Twenty animators from the U.S., Switzerland, Poland and China express their friendship with and love of animation in a series of animated variations on the standard countdown.
A story about the fight for power told with the help of simple graphics. The huge building, the huge column hall, one chair around the chairman's board table is empty. We observe the fight for that chair: little men run and fight, all tricks are allowed.
On Christmas Eve, a little girl falls asleep after a party at her home and dreams herself (or does she?) into a fantastic world where toys become larger than life. Her beloved Nutcracker comes to life and defends her from the Mouse King, then is turned into a Prince after Marie saves his life.
A figure wanders through a world of endless stairs, seeking purpose to his monotonous existence.
A couple's relationship develops in a combination of photomontage and animation.
A bitter story about a bizarre folk sculptor. The creators placed the action in the original landscapes of a mountain village.