Programme 2010

Die Abentauer des Prinzen Achmed
Germany (Weimar Republic), 1923-1926, 35mm, 66’


Directed by: Lotte Reiniger
Script: Lotte Reiniger based on the Arabian Nights legends
Animation: Lotte Reiniger
Art design: Lotte Reiniger, Walther Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, Walter Türk, Alexander Kardan
Photography: Carl Koch
Music: Andrej Goričar
Original music score executed by: Andrej Goričar, Oksana Pečeny
Production: Comenius-Film Berlin

The film takes us to the distant past, to the Middle East ruled by sultans, caliphs and evil viziers. Prince Achmed and his helper, the thief Abu, meet in prison. When released, they travel around the world and meet the beautiful princess Pari Banu, her father Sultan, the maid Halima, the spirit of Aladdin's bottle, ladies-in-waiting, soldiers, guards, sailors... Their path takes them across land, sea and air, on a series of incredible adventures. The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a film of suspense and rich imagination, making the viewers hold their breaths and keep their fingers crossed for their heroes.

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German director Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) spent three years making this silent animated film based on the Arabian Nights legends. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film (two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost), and it featured a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets (though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action). The original prints featured colour tinting. The story is based on the elements taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, specifically The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou featured in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book.

Almost eighty-five years later, this enchanting film still stands as one of the great classics of animation — beautiful, mesmerizing and utterly seductive. This cinematic treasure has been beautifully restored with its spectacular colour tinting and will be performed live with a magnificent new score by Andrej Goričar. Thrilling, sensuous and dazzling, Prince Achmed will enthral children and film enthusiasts of all ages.

Recommended: puppet performance Bagdadski tatič / The Thief of Bagdad in Ljubljana Puppet theatre – premiere in March 2011

Lotte Reiniger, born in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1899, is today regarded as the creator of the silhouette film. Thanks to her unique talent she left behind quite a significant body of work comprising more than forty such films. Even as a young child she was intent upon a career in entertainment, but her first desire was to be an actress. It was this ambition that led her to meet Paul Wegener, the film director and star, at the tender age of sixteen. Soon she was studying under the famous theatre director, Max Reinhardt. It was there that she had her first epiphany in working with silhouettes. She would stand in the wings watching the performance, becoming enthralled by the actors’ silhouettes against the limelight. This led her to begin making silhouette portraits of the performers. And before long she developed a keen interest in the art. At the same time, Lotte acquired a skill few animators learned as well even today, the subtle art of body movement to express emotion. Lotte’s introduction to film and filmmaking was by Paul Wegener, as she assisted him in the animation and made title animation on a few of his works. Due to his enthusiasm for her skill at cutting silhouettes he brought her to the Institut fur Kulturforschung, where she began to produce short animated shadow play films. Lotte Reiniger soon met and became intimate with Carl Koch, a noted art historian, who would help Lotte with the more technical ends of her filmmaking. Koch also introduced her to many important figures in the Berlin arts community most notably Bertolt Brecht and Hans Richter. Although not Jewish, Carl Koch and Lotte Reiniger were closely identified with leftist politics and deplored the rise of Nazism. They immediately tried to leave Germany in 1933, but were not able to get emigration visas. Lotte worked on a Pabst film in France in 1933, but had to return to Germany, where she made six more films, between frequent "vacations" to England, Greece and other places in search of asylum. In 1936, Carl and Lotte resolved to leave Germany for good, even if it meant a transient existence, which it did. Jean Renoir employed Carl in Paris, while Lotte found some backing for silhouette films in England. In 1980 Lotte Reiniger settled in Dettenhausen near Tübingen, where she died a year later.


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Andrej Goričar was born in Ljubljana in 1971. While studying piano at the Academy of Music, Ljubljana, he received Prešeren student award. He completed his studies by performing the original version of Gershwin's Rhapsody in blue together with RTV Slovenia symphony orchestra conducted by Carl Davis.
In years 1996 –2002, he was the principal of St Stanislav's Institution music school, where he also conducted a light orchestra. In years 1996–2007 he was the resident pianist of the Slovenian Cinematheque, where he performed a wide repertoire of silent classics and many retrospectives at home and abroad. He also wrote scores for the silent films Sunrise (F. W. Murnau, USA, 1924 – the first orchestra score for a silent feature film in Slovenia) and V kraljestvu Zlatoroga (J. Ravnik, 1931).
After 2002 he became a freelance artist with a particular focus on composing. He makes compositions and arrangements for diverse music groups and genres ranging from classical to entertainment and film music. He also composes for the theatre.
In 2010 he was the winner of the International Composing Competition “2 Agosto” in Bologna, Italy, where the jury was headed by Ennio Morricone.

Oksana Pečeny (Kiev, 1983) was first educated in music at a special school for talented children in her local Kiev, then studied at Maribor art secondary school in the class of her father, Taras Pečeny, where she graduated with distinction. She then studied in Graz for three semesters and graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music, Ljubljana, the class of Primož Novšak, full professor. She was the winner at several Slovenian and international competitions (Ljubljana, Italy, the Netherlands). As a soloist, she has performed with all Slovenian professional chamber and symphony orchestras, Zagreb symphony orchestra and the Romanian symphony orchestra. In 2004 she was awarded Prešeren student award for the performance of a Sibelius violin concerto together with the Slovenian symphony orchestra. While studying she spent three years as the first and only concertmaster of chamber and symphony orchestras of the Academy of Music, Ljubljana. She was also the concertmaster of Animato international youth orchestra in 2006 and 2008, and second concertmaster of Tonhalle Zurich orchestra in 2006.