The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (1990)

Original title

Konec stalinismu v Čechách

Directed by

Jan Švankmajer

Genre

animation, comedy

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

10 min

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 42 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This short animated film is a surreal critique of the Stalinist era in Czechoslovakia. It uses stop motion and collage to create disturbing imagery that reflects on political oppression and the Velvet Revolution.

surrealdarkpoliticalexperimentaldreamlikeunsettlingsatiricalpropagandistic

What happens

The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (Czech: Konec stalinismu v Čechách) is a 1990 animated surrealist short film by Jan Švankmajer. In 1990 the BBC asked Švankmajer to make a film about situation in Czechoslovakia. Švankmajer later remarked: "Despite the fact that this film emerged along the same path of imagination as all my other films, I never pretended that it was anything more than propaganda. Therefore I think it is a film which will age more quickly than any of the others." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.