Surreal Root
A Prague filmmaker since the 1960’s, Jan Švankmajer’s innovative and experimental work has survived six different political regimes, Communist censors and even an official ban. A satirical and subversive updated fairy tale, Little Otik intermingles live action, stop motion and traditional animation. Food, a favorite Švankmajer theme, is taken to a deliciously perverse and nuanced place in Little Otik as a metaphor for capitalist consumption, sex and communication. Karel and Božena’s intense desire to have a child becomes a surreal nightmare when Karel attempts to comfort his wife with a tree root vaguely resembling a baby. To Karel’s horror, the mandrake-like-root pushes Božena’s maternal desire to obsession. Brought to animated life, the tree-baby Otik develops his own unquenchable appetite…for human flesh. The film’s heroine, the young neighbor girl Alžbětka, begins to notice parallels between Božena’s bizarre pregnancy and a Czech fairy tale. Feeling sorry for baby Otik, whose ‘parents’ abandon him after several people in the apartment block disappear, Alžbětka tries to curb Otik’s hunger before he meets the fate of his fairy-tale counterpart.
Little Otik (Otesánek)
Directed by Jan Švankmajer
Starring Jan Hartl & Veronika Zilková
Czech Republic, 2000
–review by Colleen Jankovic