Director: Jan Lenica
Release date: 1961
Rating: ★★★★
Review:

In ‘Labirynt’ a man flies into a seemingly abandoned city, only to find it to be a dangerous place, terrorized by strange creatures and machines, alike.

This is one of those rare animation films from Eastern Europe depicting what it’s like to live in an oppressive communist state. The film is highly surreal, featuring strange creatures, often mixes of animal and human parts, but I am still surprised the film got past the censors. For example, at one moment the man is captured by a bearded machine-man and thoroughly examined. At one key scene we watch is thoughts roaming freely inside his head, only to get barred by a strange contraption. The end, too, in which the man tries to escape the paranoid city is telling enough.

Jan Lenica’s world is based on partly colored old photographs and engravings. His animation is emblematic, but at one point we surely feel the man’s fear, as he tries to flee from his oppressors. The surrealist atmosphere is enhanced by Jan Radlicz’s sound design and by Włodzimierz Kotoński’s score.

Watch ‘Labirynt’ yourself and tell me what you think:

‘Labirynt’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Anthology of Polish Animated Film’