Film Forum

Germany, 1926
Written and directed by Lotte Reiniger
Approx. 66 min.

“Among the earliest animated features, this Arabian Nights fable is a joy to behold. Three years in the making and comprising some 300,000 individual frames, Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette masterpiece remains unchallenged in terms of its exquisite beauty and experimental audacity. The expressive figures, balletic movements, contrasts of light and shade and dramatic backdrops are very impressive. It was also technically significant, as it witnessed the invention of the multi-plane camera stand.” – Empire Magazine

Presented with support from The Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

Reviews

“A rapturous animated kaleidoscope with a more abstracted visage of the 1001 Arabians Nights tale than you could dream.”
– Wesley Morris, San Francisco Examiner

“It impresses for its exquisite craftmanship, balletic movement, expressive romanticism, and moments of potent sensuousness and poetry.”
– Wally Hammond, Time Out

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