The Puppet Master: The Films of Jiří Trnka
Screening Dates
  • July 28, 2018 4:30
  • August 2, 2018 6:30

Adapted from the scathingly funny, hugely influential anti-war classic by anarchist writer Jaroslav Hašek, this three-part satirical farce charts the exploits of the eponymous World War I infantryman, whose antic misadventures continually frustrate his commanding officers—and reveal the absurdity of the entire conflict. Basing his designs on the novel’s original, celebrated illustrations by Josef Lada, Trnka mixes his trademark puppetry with striking cut-out animation sequences to accompany the droll, rambling tales that Švejk spins. The result is a subversive anti-authoritarian statement that captures the novel’s biting wit and irreverent spirit.

In Czech with English subtitles.

preceded by

Cybernetic Grandma
(Kybernetická babička)
Czechoslovakia 1962
Jiří Trnka
28 min. DCP

Trnka took a turn into Space Age sci-fi surrealism with this dark, dystopian satire on automation in which a child traverses a forbidding technological wasteland to meet (surprise!) her uncanny new robotic grandmother.

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