The famous story of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been translated to the silver screen many times, but no film adaptation comes close to Jan Švankmajer’s Alice. By fusing dreamlike sets and macabre puppetry using symbols such as animal skulls and dentures, a bewildering and haunting universe is created that you won’t forget easily.

The Czech director was disappointed in the adaptations that had appeared so far, which interpreted the story as a fairy tale. Švankmajer embraced the absurdity and obscurity of Wonderland by presenting Alice’s journey as an amoral childhood dream. After a career as a maker of short films, this was his debut as a director of a feature-length film.

At the Festival international du film d’animation in Annecy, Švankmajer won the award for best feature-length film, and the picture was well received internationally by critics and audiences alike. Now we’re bringing this masterpiece back to the big screen, so forget everything you think you know about Alice’s story and immerse yourself in this breathtaking work that explores the dark undertones of Carroll’s tale.

-Lucas

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