Little Otik

The movie is based around a theme, which is this old Czechoslovakian folk tale of a couple unable to bear children, but are so desperate for one that they fashion a baby out of a tree stump with roots. They care for it and nurture it as they would a real baby, feeding and cuddling it as if it were real, and then voila one day, it really comes alive. But all's not well with this 'tree baby' because it has an insatiably HUGE appetite and by the time its a few months old, is gouging down the equivalent of food enough to feed 10 adults or more. His poor parents, out of love for him, tries to source food for him despite struggling to find the money to buy all the food he requires, and eventually they found it unsustainable... and he gets so hungry he starts eating people and animals. The consequences are horrendous but this is more of a black comedy because its actually funny and quirky to watch despite the occasional gory scene of flesh on bones left after the tree baby's just devoured someone or some animal. Soon the problem grows bigger and bigger and will the baby ever be stopped? The ending was just as good as the beginning. This movie is quite long - about 2 hours or more I thought... but I watched it right to the end, and found it really good fun. This movie is quirky to the end, and keeps you wondering what would happen next.

I was sent this title by mistake, so sent it straight back. However, I have seen the film before, and it is enchanting, magical and very intriguing, if you like unusual European films.

I would recommend this film.

If more films like this were made, and we all watched them regularly, we would all probably be raving mad ! As mad as the Czech way of life which it is supposedly satirising.

It is tasteless, grotesque, disgusting, revolting and this is the point !

It is a psychotic nightmare, a very grim fairy tale and a jet-black comedy all rolled into one, where a dead tree stump is treated like a baby and comes alive as a flesh-eating monster. It is horrifically comical and comically horrific.

The plot sounds like complete nonsense, but it is brilliantly written and expertly directed; the consistently first-class acting makes the whole thing strangely disturbing and fascinating.

The camera work is exceptional; it is a shame that the bottom of the screen is so often overlaid by the subtitles, which you have to read, therefore missing some of the superb cinematography, which demands not to be missed. It should be very skillfully dubbed so as to avoid this distraction.

The film's concentration upon tiny details is a major strength; there are numerous, very unusual close-ups, camera angles and strange camera movements, which transport the story into the theatre of the absurd.

It appeals to the child in all of us; the last time that I have seen anything of this kind was, in fact, a child's TV program called 'The Singing Ringing Tree'. However, this is not a film which anyone in their right mind would allow a child to watch. The appearance of the pre-teenage girl in the film is in itself one its most disturbing features, with scenes which imply a paedophiliac interest of a very old man, which is particularly tasteless, but, somehow, in the very wierd logic of the film, it seems to be perfectly well in place.

The only moral seems to be 'release your imagination'; not a bad moral of a constantly engaging and interesting dollop of film-making, with lots of slices of hokum thrown in.

I was recommended this by my Mum, who thought i would like it. From the opening credits, you are assaulted with images of babies, and this sets the viewer up for an insight into the driving force behind the main couple- the NEED to conceive a child. You really feel for the husband, who tries to make life more bearable for his wife, but instead gets embroiled in a rollercoaster of murder and lies. From a tree stump. The husband's feeling of being trapped is palpable, as is the whole essence of frustration and duality that he feels- on one hand, he HAS to stop everything, but on the other, he loves deeply Otik. Uncomfortable viewing all round, and if this isn't for you, then My Super Ex-Girlfriend may challenge you enough- i mean, she does throw a shark at him...

A great, weird story about a little girl who knows a fairy tale which she sees being played out in the flat upstairs! Quite gruesome in parts - too scary for the children - and very long...Funny though. A must-see for Swankmajer fans; there's not as much of his wonderful animation as there was in his earlier films, but what there is is fascinating.