I'll happily admit to being a fan of Svankmajer's work, watching his shorter pieces on beeb 2 and CH 4, especially when the latter serialised his adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (1988). However, I felt that his Faust (1994) was a tad over-long.

     In Little Otik an infertile couple, obsessed by having a baby, adopt a tree-root. This root, Otik, develops a taste for fresh meat after polishing off the family cat. In the block of flats, only the prescient daughter of one of the neighbours suspects what is happening. She is both fearful of the monster it becomes and also desperate for a friend to play with.

     The film is a mix of live action and stop-motion animation with Otik reminding me of one of the dark young of Shub-Niggurath, all twigs and a bloody train behind it.

     The problem is though, one again, the film is a little too long. What it needs, is you'll excuse the pun, is a bit of pruning. At times the film is a fable somewhere between Tom Thumb and Little Shop of Horrors. I await Jan's next film, but hope that his co-producers ensure the script is tight.

Suzy Kuba