For three evenings only, Charlie's movie theatre in Bratislava will show the best of Slovak animated film. On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Creative Animated Film Union in Slovakia, 34 animated films which highlight the development of Slovak animation will be presented.
Each evening offers the audience a complete parade through the changes animated film has undergone throughout Slovak cartoon history. Beginning humbly with simple pencil drawings, animated film has gradually developed to where it now encompasses various techniques ranging from play dough and puppet figures to computerised animation.
The films' storylines reflect the period in which they were made, covering political, social, family and ecological issues as well as visions of the future through boundless imagination typical of animated film. The film 'The Ogre and the Stonemason' reflects an artist's position in a society where he is terrorised by a stronger man; 'Cinema' is a satire about commercial films; 'The Laid-back Crocodile' is a short, minute-long strip about a little girl sitting on a toilet while a crocodile approaches her through the plumbing.
Each film series opens with a film by Viktor Kubal, who made around 250 animated films and is known as the creator of animated film in Slovakia. The film 'Well' is considered to be a classic of Slovak animation history. His films are then followed by other leading animators who have influenced the development of Slovak animation: cartoonist and director Jaroslava Havettová, illustrator Vlastimil Herold, puppet theatre founder Vladimír Pikalík and creative animator František Jurišič. Ondrej Slivka, who unlike most of his counterparts formally studied animated education, experiments with computerised animation in his films.
The evening presentations will be concluded by a couple of successful films made by students or recent graduates of the Fine Arts University in Bratislava.
The first showings begin at 17:00 on Thursday, November 9, at 19:00 on November 10, and at 16:00 on November 11. All shows will be at Charlie's cinema on Špitálska 4 (near the rear side of Tesco).
For more information, call tel: 5296 3396.
Zuzana Habšudová
