El Apóstol (1917)

Original title

El apóstol

Directed by

Quirino Cristiani

Genre

satire, drama film, silent film

Country

Argentina

Runtime

1h 10m

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This silent animated film from Argentina uses fantasy to satirize its president. In the story, the president dreams of visiting the gods on Mount Olympus. He then borrows a lightning bolt from Zeus to destroy corruption in Buenos Aires.

satiricalfantasticaldreamlikewhimsicallosthistoricalpolitical

What happens

El Apóstol (English: The Apostle) is a 1917 lost Argentine animated film, directed by Italian-born cartoonist Quirino Cristiani and produced by Federico Valle. Historians consider it the world's first animated feature film. Production began after the success of Cristiani and Valle's short film La intervención a la provincia de Buenos Aires, lasting either less than ten months or twelve months; accounts differ. Its script was written by Alfonso de Laferrére, the background models of Buenos Aires were created by Andrés Ducaud, and the initial character designs were drawn by Diógenes Taborda. El Apóstol is a satire based on Argentina's then-president Hipólito Yrigoyen. In the film, Yrigoyen dreams about going to Mount Olympus and discussing politics with the gods before using one of Zeus's lightning bolts to cleanse Buenos Aires of corruption. Well received at the time in Buenos Aires, it was not distributed beyond that city. The film was destroyed in a 1926 fire in Valle's studio. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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