The Adventures of Prince Achmed
As a gem of film history, we are proud to present Lotte Reiniger's “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”. Accompanied by live music, this silhouette film from 1926, one of the first feature-length animated films ever made, is a real experience! In the distant Orient, an evil sorcerer impresses the Caliph with his flying horse. The Caliph is thrilled and wants to buy the horse, but when the sorcerer names his daughter Princess Dinarsade as the price, her brother Prince Achmed intervenes and is promptly blown away by the wind on his flying horse by a trick of the sorcerer. Between distant lands and spirit worlds, this is the beginning of an odyssey from which he can only find his way back to his family with the help of magic. With their magnificent colors, the delicate paper cutouts captivate the audience. An absolute must for all fans of animated films and recommended for everyone in these turbulent times, because the escapism of the 1920s has lost none of its appeal.
Andres Kaufmes and Tim Offenhäußer use Reiner's silhouette epic as a springboard, not as a model. Their live soundtrack is not a soundtrack in the classical sense, but a constantly reinventing soundscape of modular synthesizers and programmed chaos. Live coding meets improvised electronics, noise mixes with hypnotic rhythms—no plan, no convention, just the moment. In this way, they cut through the delicate shadow worlds of the film with raw, unpredictable sound structures that retell the fairy tale between magic and escape. A search between control and chance, sound and image, that can open up new directions at any moment.
Supporting Film: Schauen Sie auf das kleine Vögelchen
A desperate young woman in a photo booth ruins one picture after another. Look at the little bird by Anna Kalus deals with its own production process in an absurdly comical way, constantly reinventing itself. The montage is negated by the dismantling of its idea.