One Night in One City

Dir.: Jan Balej
Scr.: Ivan Arsenyev, Jan Balej
Phot.: Miloslav Spala
Editor: Magda Sandersova
Music: Tadeas Vercak
Voices: Jan Novotny, Vaclav Poul, Jiri Labus
Format: 35 mm; Colour
78 mins
www.jednenoci.cz

Trailer


Trailer

Intricate stop-motion animation is brought to bear bleak, surreal parables in the dyspeptic horror toon One Night in One City. Fastidiously, imaginatively detailed model work springs from the mind of 50-year-old animator Jan Balej.

“In a faded apartment block (stories were inspired by Prague's boho Zizkov neighborhood), various characters with heads like misshapen potatoes indulge in hobbies such as dead insect circuses, urban bear hunts, pet cremations and donkey worship. Later, a fish and a tree share the Christmas holiday. Finally, two drunks go on a nocturnal thrill ride. Style and content owe a debt to Czech pioneers Jiri Trinka and Jan Svankmajer (not to mention the brothers Quay). Pic was produced over six years at a cost of nearly $700,000. Voicings consist of mumbles and grunts.” (Eddie Cockrell)

See also:
	Half Moon		Hello, Stranger
	Kek		Las Cruces
	Our Time		Pao's Story
	The Pope’s Toilet		Stop Revolution
	The Swallows Have Arrived		Those Three
	Tribe