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.
Teresa und Patricia are best friends. Despite the big differences between date-experienced Teresa and romantically predisposed single-mother Patricia, they have one thing in common: they have enough of bad dates and are sick of stupid dudes, bad surprises and broken hearts. When Teresa meets the neurotic programmer Anton, who is completely inexperienced in the field of romance, they come up with a genius business idea: together with the womanizer and start-up founder Paul, they develop an app with which potential dates can be categorized. In this manner, users can paint a picture of what they're getting themselves into. However, quite quickly they find out that people can't be easily fit into boxes and that matters of the heart shouldn't be left to an algorithm...
2013. During Operation Bidone, the Federal Police seized a truck loaded with palm heart, which contained 697 kg of cocaine. The investigation falls on the team assembled by Ivan Romano, based in Curitiba and composed by Beatriz, Júlio and Ítalo. The traffic connections lead them to the dower Alberto Youssef and later to the former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa, who reveals an immense structure involving builders and the government, in order to divert public money. As the investigation progresses, the group led by Ivan is increasingly approaching some of the country's most influential politicians.
Before the three feature films, Mario Schifano directs the camera towards the people around him to create real film diaries. His friends, his time partner and the artists he frequented are portrayed in their everyday life or object of the mechanical gaze of the camera, a filter through which to look at the outside world.
This harrowing tale of survival centers on Rose, a Masurian woman, whose German soldier husband was killed in the war, leaving her alone on their farm. A single woman had no defense against Russian soldiers who raped as a form of revenge, nor against plundering Poles who found themselves in desperate straits. Help arrives for Rose in the form of Tadeusz, a former officer in the Polish Home Army who deserted after he saw his wife raped and murdered by Russian troops and is attempting to hide his identity.
The Lindenhof School is expecting a busload of proper young English ladies as exchange students. The shock is great when the students turn out to be teenage boys! But while Mademoiselle Bertoux is delighted to stage “Romeo and Juliet” with real boys, both Hanni and her sister Nanni fall for their “Romeo,” Clyde.
Richard is a spy. Ever since his wife Angela left him, cause she never liked what he did or became, his heart has not exactly been in it anymore. After failing to complete his mission, he decides to leave. His friend and boss, Tony Cooper, brings him to a plastic surgeon, so that he could change his appearance and disappear. A year later, he learns that the doctor who operated on him and Tony are dead. He suspects that someone's either trying to get back at him through them or is trying to flush him out. He then fears that Angela could be next. So he goes to her but she's gotten on with her life and doesn't want him back.
27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise, the former members of the Losers' Club, who have grown up and moved away from Derry, are brought back together by a devastating phone call.
This in-world short film takes place in the year 2036 and revolves around Jared Leto’s character, Niander Wallace. In this short, Wallace introduces a new line of “perfected” replicants called the Nexus 9, seeking to get the prohibition on replicants repealed. This no doubt has serious ramifications that will be crucial to the plot of Blade Runner 2049.
In 1926, Newt Scamander arrives at the Magical Congress of the United States of America with a magically expanded briefcase, which houses a number of dangerous creatures and their habitats. When the creatures escape from the briefcase, it sends the American wizarding authorities after Newt, and threatens to strain even further the state of magical and non-magical relations.
After thirteen years of engagement, the boring sex life of Rui and Vani is limited to one intercourse every other week. They decide to seek excitement with a threesome and they decide to invite Vani's cousin Silvinha to participate late night, but an accident interrupts their game. Rui and Vani unsuccessfully spend the night searching for for companion of a bisexual woman.
When Sam is murdered in a remote lake, his consciousness begins to travel through the bodies of his friends in an effort to protect them from his killer. This dark passage leads him on a greater journey - discovering his own true identity.
This animated short revolves around the events causing an electrical systems failure on the west coast of the US. According to Blade Runner 2049’s official timeline, this failure leads to cities shutting down, financial and trade markets being thrown into chaos, and food supplies dwindling. There’s no proof as to what caused the blackouts, but Replicants — the bio-engineered robots featured in the original Blade Runner, are blamed.
A young woman thinks she’s found a path to internet stardom when she starts making YouTube videos with a charismatic stranger – until the dark side of viral celebrity threatens to ruin them both.
When an aspiring rapper goes viral for the wrong reasons, he thinks his career is sunk. But a wild party gives him one more chance to make it right.
Sonia Kennebeck takes on the controversial tactic of drone warfare, and demands accountability through the personal accounts—recollections, traumas, and responses—of three American military veterans whose lives have been shaken by the roles they played in this controversial method of attack.
Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry mutates this gentle ape into a raging creature of enormous size. To make matters worse, it’s soon discovered there are other similarly altered animals. As these newly created alpha predators tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.
Lewis is an outwardly ordinary guy, but in reality he is hiding an obsession – revenge – against Cathy. Lewis kidnaps Cathy in broad daylight and takes her to his home, where he locks her in a soundproof cell and attempts to extract a dark secret from her past.
A peaceful alien planet faces annihilation, as the homeless remainder of the human race sets its eyes on Terra. Mala, a rebellious Terrian teenager, will do everything she can to stop it.
After a nuclear attack, a magician takes shelter in a forest with his assistant to complete his biggest magic trick to date, The Creation, a trick that requires that you do some of the most inhumane things known to man.
Scrat tries to finish his rather large collection of acorns when things start going nutty.
A boy born the size of a small doll is kidnapped by a genetic lab and must find a way back to his father in this inventive adventure filmed using stop motion animation techniques.
For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.
A story about a good boy and a shoemaker who wants to do his job, but faces many challenges because of his advanced age. This thoughtful old man takes care of birds, and his good deeds come back to him in caring neighborhood kids who are trying to help the man, making new orders. But will they perform a cobbler’s work well?
After being kidnapped and escaping, young drummer boy Aaron searches for his camel and finds him in the Nativity of the Baby Jesus. Aaron gives Baby Jesus the only gift he has, a song on his drum.
A man is trapped in a sinister flat, where nothing seems to obey the laws of nature.
Various objects are having a sunny outing together in the nature.
Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories is a compilation of five of Eric Carle’s most popular stories. In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a tiny caterpillar eats and eats... and eats his way through the week; Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me shows a young girl asking her father for the moon, but he discovers that the moon is very, very big. The Very Quiet Cricket is about a cricket who finally finds his voice and The Mixed-Up Chameleon learns an important lesson about being himself. Finally, I See A Song invites audiences on a magical musical journey. But can you really see a song?
A homeless bum, bored of eating the same food every night, promises his girlfriend a special dinner. He plans to take her out with money robbed from a passing stranger. But the bum’s in for a surprise when the man he targets for his mugging turns out to have special – and hilarious – powers.
While grieving the loss of his younger brother, an emotionally broken young man struggles with his guilt and grief as a strange and otherworldly entity begins to watch him, forcing him to confront his loss and inner turmoil.
When Dr Frankenstein decides to retire from the monster-making business, he calls an international roster of monsters to a creepy convention to elect his successor. Everyone is there including Dracula, The Werewolf, The Creature, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and many more. But Frankenstein's title is not all that is at stake. The famous doctor has also discovered the secret of total destruction that must not fall into the wrong hands!
When the Thanagarians visit Earth, Hawkgirl is forced to choose between loyalty to her people and love for her friends on her adopted planet Earth.
A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter how twisted or odd that way must be. A memorably bizarre screen version of Lewis Carroll’s novel "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland".
A very free adaptation of Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus", Goethe's "Faust" and various other treatments of the old legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. A nondescript man is lured by a strange map into a sinister puppet theatre, where he finds himself immersed in an indescribably weird version of the play, blending live actors, clay animation and giant puppets.
A device consisting of a clock, a pendulum, a faucet and a bucket enacts a series of events whenever the clock chimes.