Jan Švankmajer’s brilliant first feature is a free interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice is alternately a wide-eyed young girl (Kristýna Kohoutová) and a small stop-motion animated doll, narrating her own adventures as she negotiates a menacing world populated by various Wonderland staples and fantastical collage-creatures from the bizarre menagerie housed in Švankmajer’s “Natural Science Cabinets” – his wunderkammern of the 1970s.

For its Melbourne screening, CaSFFA is delighted to be presenting a digital restoration of Alice with its original Czech soundtrack in partnership with the Melbourne Cinémathèque. It will be preceded by two superb, anticipatory short films: Jabberwocky (Žvahlav aneb Šatičky Slaměného Huberta, 1971, 12 min), and Down to the Cellar (Do sklepa, 1982, 14 min).

In Sydney, Alice will be preceded by Švankmajer’s 1968 live-action short, The Garden (Zahrada, 17 min).