Underplayed Gems

El Apóstol (1917)

El Apóstol poster
Original title
El apóstol
Directed by
Quirino Cristiani
Genre
satire, drama film, silent film
Country
Argentina
Runtime
1h 10m
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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.

More films like this

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)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.