Projects: Jan Švankmajer's Insects

Check out this info on his final project, Insects. 


Czech surrealist filmmaker and puppet animator Jan Švankmajer has spent the last five years preparing to begin what will be his final film.

Švankmajer launches an ambitious Indiegogo campaign today – May 25th, 2016 – to help fund his last film, the stop-motion / live-action hybrid Hmyz (Insects), based loosely upon Karel and Josef Čapek's decidedly Kafkaesque satirical stage play, Ze života hmyzu (Pictures from the Insect’s Life).

The Čapeks’ dark comedy, which provides a basic framework for the newest Švankmajer odyssey, is both allegory and wry commentary on the (often quite literally) flighty moralities and eccentricities inherent throughout the human race, as illustrated through social groups’ similarities to various species of insect. Švankmajer will utilize the themes from the 1922 play as a backdrop for his critiques of modern society, and the people who inhabit it.



Švankmajer, at eighty-one years of age, continues to be prolific despite the length of time between films – his most recent release having been six years ago, he has been developing ideas for Insects, consulting experts in entomology and cultivating his materials. Insects entered pre-production in 2014, and the impending release of the film itself will be accompanied by behind-the-scenes documentary footage, detailing the progression and scope of Švankmajer’s creative process as he brings his final magnum opus to life.

Upon completion of Insects, Švankmajer will retire from filmmaking, leaving behind him a canon of genius including a brilliantly bizarre, terrifying adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland tales and an uncanny, hauntingly beautiful version of the Faust mythos. His brutal honesty and ability to bring the dreamlike worlds of animation together with the strangeness of reality will undoubtedly course through the lifeblood of Insects, drawing the curtain on a truly incredible career.


To donate to the Indiegogo campaign, and help Jan Švankmajer bring his project to fruition, visit http://insectsmovie.com, where you will find information and updates on the film’s progression and a direct link to the project’s crowdfunding page – or follow Švankmajer at his official Facebook page.