An unsettling piece of filmmaking whose grimly vivid images are guaranteed to give impressionable viewers nightmares.
Little Otik(Otesánek)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Japan · 2001
2h 12m
Director Jan Švankmajer
Starring Veronika Žilková, Jan Hartl, Jaroslava Kretschmerová, Pavel Nový
Genre Comedy, Horror, Drama
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When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Must be the smartest -- and most disturbing -- movie about parenthood in ages.
Magnificently twisted black comedy.
New Times (L.A.) by Gregory Weinkauf
In the realm of B-movies about messing with nature, it's as enjoyable as "Frankenstein Unbound," and unlike, say, "A.I." it's intentionally creepy. It's also occasionally masterful.
This comic horror story rivals A.I. as the year's creepiest representation of maternal love -- partly because it naturalizes the Frankenstein story in terms of human procreation.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Little Otik is too outre not to turn off some, but for those who can go the increasingly macabre distance, its sheer power to confound can be enthralling.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
Should be required viewing for prospective parents still sitting on the spermatazoan fence; after all, you're going to need a good sense of humor, aren't you?
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
At 80 minutes, this might have been a delight. At more than two hours, it's so much of a good thing that it starts to become a bad thing.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
Rife with dark humor, Little Otik presents a cautionary variation of the creation myth, and a warning that tampering with the natural order of things may not be such a wise idea.
Subversively funny, it's a welcome alternative to the big-budget movies flooding into theaters at this time of year.
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