Would you like to learn about the customs of our southern neighbours? Feel invited to the screening of "The Czech Year" ("Špalíček") by Jiří Trnka – the master of Czech animation.

‘The Czech Year’ (1947) is Jirí Trnka’s first full-length film. In process of making the movie he used puppets and a stop-motion technique. ‘The Czech Year’ storyline bases on Czech folklore and rituals that were gathered by František Hrubín in a book with the same title. The movie consists of six sequences illustrating a pulse of life in a Czech countryside at particular times of the year. The movie brought Trnka a great many awards and international recognition.

Jirí Trnka (1912-1969) was hailed the Disney of Eastern Europe, because right after the war he was regarded to be most powerful opponent of the animation tycoon. However, Trnka’s works were always standing far from Disney’s style. Unusual thematics and number of forms of expression were defining feature of his movies – it’s characteristic of so-called Czech school of animation.

“(…) Attention to detail is the most amazing thing in Trnka’s works: animated figures even make reflections in water and the way they move were taken from real persons – for this effect filmmakers used to measure time of their own reactions by performing specific activities and converting those results to screening time. However, Trnka’s puppets were always simplified – plain faces, round shapes, fingerless palms; that is what creates the discriminative style of Jirí Trnka’s Studio.”

Mikołaj Góralik, Jiří Trnka: Disney of Eastern Europe, „EKRANy” 2015, nr 5 (27), p. 62, 64

The Czech Year
Špalíček
(dir. Jiří Trnka, Czechoslovakia 1947, 75’)
from the NFA collection in Prague

23rd November (Wednesday), 5:45 PM
Małopolski Ogród Sztuki – Small Hall