Little Otik

Aroview: Animation guru and ‘militant surrealist’ Jan Svankmajer elaborates on a distinctively Czech fairy tale about a monstrous baby that grows up from a dug-up tree root.

With his patented hybrid of live action, puppetry and object animation, he crafts a purely imaginative, deadpan piece of pop art that, despite its excessive running time, delivers a blackly amusing satire on family ties, apartment living and conspicuous consumption.