Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed

With THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, the first feature-length animated film in history was created in the mid-1920s – and remains one of the most beautiful to this day. Lotte Reiniger conjured a fairytale universe from paper, light, and movement, drawing on motifs from One Thousand and One Nights: Prince Achmed flies through the air on a magic horse, encountering demons, witches, Aladdin, and the beautiful fairy Pari Banu. Three years of work, some 250,000 individual frames, and countless intricately cut silhouettes went into this masterpiece, which combines oriental ornamentation with avant-garde inventiveness. Supported by artists such as Walter Ruttmann and Berthold Bartosch, Reiniger developed a visual language that appears almost weightless – as if the characters were moving of their own accord.
(Florian Widegger)