LUNACY aka SiLENi

Year: 2005
USA: Zeitgeist Films
UK: BFI / Illumination Films
Cast: Pavel Liska, Jan Triska, Anna Geislerova, Jaroslav Dusek, Martin Huba, Pavel Nový, Stano Danciak Jiri Krytinar, Jan Svankmajer
Director: Jan Svankmajer
Country: Czech Republic / Slovakia
Language: Czech (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 118 mins
USA Release Date: 18 August 2006 (Limited Release -Los Angeles)
USA Release Date: 9 August 2006 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 1 June 2007 (Limited Release - London, BFI)
US Distributor
UK Distributor

Synopsis

The latest provocation from surrealist master Jan Svankmajer (LITTLE OTIK) is loosely based on two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and inspired by the works of the Marquis de Sade.

In nineteenth-century France a young man, Jean Berlot (Pavel Liska), suffers from recurring nightmares in which he is dragged off to a madhouse. On this particular day he is returning home from his mother's funeral when he meets a Marquis (Jan Triska) invites him to spend the night in his castle.

Once inside the castle the Marquis insists on helping Berlot conquer his fears. As Berlot tries to escape the Marquis prevents him determined to take his guest to a surrealistic lunatic asylum where the patients have complete freedom and the staff are locked up behind bars.

Described by Svankmajer himself in a prologue to the film as a "philosophical horror film," LUNACY combines live action and stop-motion, sex and violence, grand guignol terror and gallows humor, and a lot of animated meat.