Pavel Juráček's free-form and darkly surreal adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels also channels Lewis Carroll and Franz Kafka to create one of Czechoslovak cinema's most audacious and disturbing works.
Lost on a country road, a man finds himself trapped in a nightmare world that mirrors Communist-era Czechoslovakia. This transgressive film, like his earlier surrealist triumph Josef Kilián (1963), greatly provoked the authorities and was promptly 'banned forever'.
Jurácek, co-writer of Czech masterworks Daisies, Ikarie XB 1 and A Jester's Tale, was never allowed to direct another film - but his legacy and his commitment to poetic and political truth, remains one of the most profound, invigorating and important in all Czech cinema.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Presented from a new 4K restoration of the film from original materials by the Czech National Film Archive.
• Josef Kilián (Postava k podpírání): presented from a new 4K restoration of the film from original materials by the Czech National Film Archive.
• Two early short films co-written by Pavel Jurácek and directed by Jan Schmidt:
- Cars Without a Home (Auta bez domova, 1959)
- Black and White Sylva (Cernobílá Sylva, 1961)
• The Projection Booth podcast with Mike White, Kat Ellinger, Kevin Heffernan and Peter Hames.
• Trailer.
• Booklet featuring a new essay by writer and film historian Michael Brooke.
• Region Free Blu-ray (A/B/C)
