Six folk tales – foundational myths and legends of the Czech people – are drawn from Alois Jirásek’s 1894 book of the same name and vividly brought to life in Jiří Trnka’s spectacular, multi-award-winning, feature-length puppet animation, which has recently undergone a glorious, full digital restoration.

Working with frequent collaborators, the composer Václav Trojan, screenwriter Jiří Brdečka, and animators of the rare calibre of Břetislav Pojar, Trnka deployed the full expressive vocabulary of cinema in bestowing upon each tale’s telling its own distinct atmosphere, in a virtuoso anthology work which continues to influence generations of stop-motion animators.

CaSFFA is proud to screen Old Czech Legends courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague.