'In the Attic...' wows with animation quality

Czech director Jiri Barta's "In the Attic: Who has a Birthday Today?" impressed the audience at the 18th International Children's Film Festival, India (ICFFI) in the Andhra Pradesh capital Friday.

The film is the story of discarded toys, and the quality of animation kept the young and old glued to the screen for the duration of the 75-minute film, screened here at Prasad's IMAX multiplex Friday.

School students accompanied by their parents emerged thrilled from the theatre.

The adventure story begins from a suitcase in an attic, and is woven around discarded toys that set out on a journey to rescue their kidnapped friend.

"We went back to our childhood days to make the film. We thought of the toys we discarded. We changed simple things into wonderland," said Barta after the screening of the film.

Evil, the force that kidnapped the friend of the toys, was represented as an authoritarian master, a statue, surrounded by servants.

"I wanted to present the political system of our country through the

character. It represents reality," said the director, who is visiting

India after 15 years.

The director said the film was akin to a traditional puppet animation, and he had only one problematic scene, which involved also presenting a mountain. Barta said no matter how troublesome it might be to make animation films, they are worth it as they communicate to little ones.

"We have a long tradition of animation. It started in 1945. It's good

as they can be understood by small children," said the director. His country, the

Czech Republic, is the focus of the 18th edition of ICFFI.

"The movie was amazing. I've not seen this kind of animation," Ajinkya, a teenager whose film "The Trek" will compete under the "little directors" category at the festival, told IANS.

Anju Samnai, who travelled from Mumbai to catch films from countries like Afghanistan, Ireland, Argentina and Peru here, said: "It was interesting to see how the director came up with a story on unused toys."