Animated Film Festival Opens in Croatia

The annual festival of animated film, Animafest, starts in three cinemas in Zagreb on Tuesday, bringing 300 international short and feature-length movies to the audiences in the Croatian capital.

The festival, which started in 1972, will take place in three cinemas in Zagreb over six days.

Movies will be divided into different themes: works by great authors; feel-good movies; movies experimenting with animated techniques; socially and politically engaged movies.

One of the movies that will open the festival is "Wiener Blut" by Croatian authors Zlatko Bourek and Pavao Stalter, which tells the story of the Holocaust.

In the category of masters of animation, Bourek - known in the region for his popular animated series, "Professor Baltazar" - will be presented as this year's Croatian master.

World War 2 is also the topic of other politically engaged movies at the festival. "Giovanni's Island", by Japanese author Mizuho Nishikubo, tells the story of the Soviet occupation of the northern Japanese islands in 1945.

"Rocks in My Pockets", by Latvian animator Signe Baumane, tells the story of women in her family who endured both the Nazi and Soviet occupations in the 1940s.

This year's thematic framework is the classic tale "Alice in Wonderland", marking the 150th anniversary of its publication by Lewis Carroll.

For this occasion, the 1951 Disney animatation "Alice in Wonderland" will be screened in Croatia for the first time. Visitors will also have a chance to see a different version of the story in "Alice", made by Czech author Jan Svankmajer.

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