Curated by the Slovak Film Institute, seven animated shorts from 1955–1990 trace the rich legacy of Slovak animation, from Viktor Kubal to his contemporaries, blending playful, surreal, and thought-provoking styles for all ages.

The Apple of Knowledge

A peasant tends the soil. From a molehill, he unearths technological progress. Railways, highways, and machines soon emerge... and the once-fertile land yields beneath the weight of merciless advancement.

A sculptor, torn between self-talk and the desire to find the statue within the stone, chips away at its raw surface, riding an emotional rollercoaster. Does he possess the Michelangelo-like talent for such an act of liberation?

A cinema in the city draws film-hungry crowds, lining up eagerly for screenings of slapstick comedies, westerns, horrors, and even a touch of arthouse erotica. But when the insatiable local audience grows weary of traditional film programming, alternative content takes the stage.

An animated city symphony contrasts contemporary Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, with its past – from Roman times to the second half of the 20th century. Vedutas alternate with photographs of the city’s iconic buildings, while the striking tower and department store clocks rhythmically link the passage of time to the flow of the Danube.

A murder of crows, harbingers of death, circles over the barren digital wasteland, carrying a grim warning of the end of life on Earth. The doomsday clock is ticking – will all that’s left of us be mere museum exhibits and pages of encyclopedias?