The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer

Directed by Timothy Quay, Stephen Quay, Keith Griffiths

Produced by Atelier Koninck

A surreal, darkly playful stop-motion meditation on education, perception, and the nature of consciousness itself, told through grotesque puppet theater and impossible transformations.

In Prague, a professorial puppet, with metal pincers for hands and an open book for a hat, takes a boy as a pupil. First, the professor empties fluff and toys from the child's head, leaving him without the top of his head for most of the film. The professor then teaches the lad about illusions and perspectives, the pursuit of an object through exploring a bank of drawers, divining an object, and the migration of forms. The child then brings out a box with a tarantula in it: the professor puts his "hands" into the box and describes what he feels. The boy receives a final lesson about animation and film making; then the professor gives him a brain and his own open-book hat.