Little Otik (2000) - Jan Svankmajer

What a strange world we live in. Svankmajer is back and quite ambitious. His live action films have steadily been growing in their scope, and at least the running time of this picture seems to top them all. Like Alice and Faust this story originates from an age old tale, although in this case it is more indigenous to Czech folklore. The beginning of the film has a much stronger surreal edge to it as babies seem to appear everywhere. They are sold on the fish market wrapped in newspaper, they are hidden inside watermelons and every single woman appears to be pregnant. All but one person that is. Bozena (Veronkia Zilkova) cannot conceive and apparently her husband Karel (Jan Harti) isn't capable as well. Karel decides to fashion a tree stump that resembles a baby into something of a wooden doll for his wife. She loves the stump so much that it eventually becomes living. The story can't end there, but unlike Pinocchio this child doesn't turn into flesh it is a flailing tree with infant tendencies (an ironic turn to a weeping willow). The poor beast also happens to have an appetite that can't possibly end. 

Any simple fable has a moral and well this one isn't much different. Of course these would be parents are receiving the same punishment as Dr. Frankenstein for his usurping of God's role. "Little" Otik however carries a great deal of compassion whereas Frankenstein's monster was sympathetic to the viewers rather than his creator. The mother is fiercely protective and refuses to let any harm come of it, and even the once critical father can't go through with his plan to kill it and becomes yet another victim. Otik finds a friend in Frantisek (Pavel Novy) who is the only child not just of her parents but in their entire apartment building. She becomes an adoptive parent to Otik and is on a quest to keep feeding it, going so far as to draw matches for which member of the building to feed it, including her own mother and father. She is the only one who has read the fable and knows how it will end, but rather than recognizing the destruction and trying to prevent it, she tries to prevent Otik's eventual death and even feeds its hunger. Quite ludicrous and completely absurd as most Svankmajer films are it is still a joy to view his animation at work.