Alois Nebel


Alois Nebel is a 2011 Czech animated drama film directed by Tomáš Luňák, based on the comic-book trilogy by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír 99. It is set in the late 1980s in a small village in the Jeseník Mountains, close to the Polish border, and tells the story of a train dispatcher who begins to suffer from hallucinations where the present converges with the dark past of the expulsion of Germans after World War II. The black-and-white film was animated mainly through rotoscoping and stars Miroslav Krobot as the title character. The film was selected as the Czech entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. The film was submitted and won European Film Awards for Best animated movie.

Cast

Based on Jaroslav Rudiš' and Jaromír 99's trilogy of comic books about the character Alois Nebel, White Brook, Main Station and Golden Hills, the film project was first presented at the 2009 International Film Festival Rotterdam's CineMart co-production market. Shortly after that it was picked up for international sales by The Match Factory. Production is led by the Czech company Negativ, and co-produced with Pallas Film in Germany and Tobogang in Slovakia. The film has a budget of 2.5 million euro. It is the feature-film debut of director Tomáš Luňák, who previously had made animated music videos and advertisements. Filming of Alois Nebel started in 2008.

Release

The film premiered out of competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2011. It was also screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. was scheduled to be released in the Czech Republic on 29 September 2011 through Aerofilms.

Critical response

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called the animation "a sheer wonder" and the film "a bracing experience for those who want animation to be more than 3D superheroics and anthropomorphic animal stories". He wrote that "Ultimately, the film may delve into too much specific Czech history and central European psychology to travel beyond those territories to other than film festivals", but "The glory of the film lies not in its story but rather in its atmosphere and imagery".