Inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade, Jan Svankmajer has cast this biting allegory on the recent history of Eastern Europe as a horror film.
Using tormented traveller Pavel Liska’s eccentric encounter with Jan Triska’s decadent aristocrat to highlight the dangers of succumbing to propaganda, the rhetoric is occasionally blatant. But Svankmajer sustains his sinister atmosphere by punctuating proceedings (that range from a black mass to a premature burial and a revolt in an asylum) with flesh-creeping stop-motion sequences that surreally suggest a world in chaos.
Bristling with provocative ideas and cinematic ingenuity, this is dark, daring and devastating.