Master Hanus

Greed and hierarchy in the Caribbean reefs.

A stop motion film about an oddball felted character who slips through floors into the past and the deepest parts of his psyche in his pursuit of self-understanding.

For the past 40 years, Jan Svankmajer (Faust, Conspirators of Pleasure) has been hailed as one of cinema's most consistently surprising, wildly imaginative, and remarkable surrealists of our time. Utilizing a delirious combination of puppets, humans, stop-motion animation, and live action, Svankmajer's films conjure up a dreamlike universe that is at once dark, macabre, witty, and perversely visceral. KimStim (and Kino) is proud to to offer this collection of remarkable short works from an artist that has mesmerized audiences the world over and has inspired filmmakers from the Brothers Quay to Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam.

Film shows the story of Papageno (the one from Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute"), who wants a mate, yet has difficulties getting one.

"Román s basou" is another short by master a stop-motion puppet-animator Jiri Trnka. The story is based on Anton Chekhovs story "Roman s Kontrabasom". Princess Bibulova decides to go fishing along the river while not far away a bass player leaves his two companions to go for a swim.

A barrel organ grinder meets the devil on a mysterious moonlit night in this haunted-house fable, which showcases Trnka’s atmospheric use of sound to conjure a macabre mood.

A being made of sand wakes up in the desert. It finds a bottle near him, but it's empty. The noise of dropping water can be heard not far away...

Once upon a time there were the tsar with the tsaritsa also there was at them a son Ivan-Tsarevich. And everything would be good if Ivan parents didn't come one morning and didn't tell them about the Beloved Beauty about which to it nurses sang, and now every day dreams. Also he wants to go in this world to look for to Beloved Beauty. Ivan-Tsarevich went, and to him the robber Bulat who became a sworn brother on the way. They began to look for Beauty.

Animated short about a love between a heron and a crane.

In the kingdom of animals, Master Fox is used to trick and fool everyone. So the King, the Lion, receives more and more complaints about him. He orders that Master Fox is arrested and brought to him.

Jeannot, a young boy living in the countryside with his mother and grandfather, ventures into the forest at night to pick a fern flower before the cock crows.

Animated film based on the story of Alexander Pushkin. The new king's wife wants to get rid of their stepdaughter and expels it to certain death in the forest. Princess finds refuge in the forest in the seven bogatyrs. The queen, finds out about it and poisons her...

The story is based on the legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, which disappears under the waters of a lake to escape an attack by the Mongols.

Selkirk, an unruly, selfish pirate, is the sailing master of the Esperanza, an English galley sailing the South Seas in search of treasures. When Captain Bullock decides to abandon him on an uninhabited island, he discovers a new outlook on the world and learns to survive alone, becoming the real Robinson Crusoe.

Professor Ludwig von Drake plays a variety of popular music, all of which he wrote. First, ragtime: the Rutabaga Rag, with vegetables dancing in stop-motion. Next, the Charleston, with cut-out animation of a singer and dancers. Dixieland and more cut-out animation; the crooner/love ballad; 50's doo-wop; and finally, rockabilly.

A partly-animated short film, a fairy-tale-like telling of why the nightingale only sings at night. A young girl who has caught a nightingale dreams about the songbird and its mate, and comes to realize that birds are not meant to be captive.

A Father Christmas ornament climbs down from a decorated tree, and goes to the forest. There he creates and decorates a Christmas tree for the forest creatures. He then invites all the insects, along with a friendly frog, to come and enjoy the gifts he has prepared, and to celebrate Christmas.

The Country Rat visits his friend the Town Rat, but finds that life in the great metropolis is rather too hectic (and dangerous - there's a live cat among all the puppet rodents!)

Set in prehistoric times, this short film was created for the Edison Company by Willis H. O'Brien, a pioneer of American stop-motion animation.

Two brothers, who are both hunters and live with their mother, go to the mountains to set traps for deer. Suddenly, a demon grabs the younger brother. The older brother shoots an arrow, severing the demon's arm, which they plan to take home. But they make a grisly discovery on the journey home.