This half-hour BBC documentary offers a revealing look at Svankmajer at work on "Death of Stalinism in Bohemia," and uses excerpts from his earlier films to trace the development of his unique sensibility.
Ref'at is a judge who is ruling on an important case that witnesses a lot of security interference. Rafiq Al-Henawy has him killed and stages it as a suicide before the ruling.
As he gradually turns mad, the dancer Nijinsky evokes the important episodes of his life. In costumes and sets of lush beauty, the divine puppet performs in a final show where the secondary characters are named: Diaghilev, Isadora Duncan, Stravinsky, Auguste Rodin, Léon Bakst.
Andreas, who is ten, has been brought up by his grandmother. When she dies, he removes a putto from the crucifix placed upon her, puts it in his mouth and does not speak again.
The boisterous good humor of Jurmala, the nickel-mine owner, is, if anything, only barely dented by the raging battles in Finland before, during and after World War Two.
Dim-witted and stuttering Pidol is the brunt of his townsfolk's ridicule. Not even being reconciled to his dad Andres changes his luck, for under Andres' nose Pidol is tormented by his stepmother Husing and stepdaughter Sunshine.
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