Alternative Fantasy | Otesánek de Jan Švankmajer

Editorial

Alternative Fantasy presents modern fairy tales that explore beauty and the uncanny. The films Otesanek and La casa lobo address difficult themes—anxiety about parenthood in the first and indoctrination in the second—in the form of horror stories where fears rooted in a very real world give birth to uncontrollable monsters. Both films use unique forms of stop-motion animation to bring nightmarish worlds to life, from which brief moments of grace sometimes emerge. Two singular and challenging experiences that, in turn, amaze and unsettle you and, after swallowing you up and spitting you back out of their worlds, leave their mark.

Otesánek

by Jan Švankmajer | 2001 | Czech Republic | 2h12 | French subtitles

Nature has denied the Horák couple (Karel and Božena) the baby they longed for. One day, Mr. Horák digs up a small tree stump in the forest that looks like a child; it only needs a little carving for the resemblance to be perfect. The stump rekindles feelings of love and desire in Mrs. Horáková, but her happiness is short-lived: first, her husband tries to convince her that it is not entirely normal to feel motherly love for a piece of wood… then little Otik (“Otesánek,” as they have named the “baby”) is constantly hungry. He starts by eating the cat, then turns on the neighbors. In desperation—and despite his wife’s protests—Mr. Horák locks Otik in a potato box in the cellar, hoping he will starve to death. That is when Alzbeta, the neighbors’ daughter, bursts into the story: she understands what is happening and guesses what is going to happen…

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