The premise for this film is, it's an adaptation of sorts of Franz Kafka's masterpiece Metamorphosis - as a kiddie TV show, with a very avuncular storyteller (Jeff Francis), a girl or rather young woman made up as little girl (Hani Furstenberg) as a figure of identification for the kiddie audience, a toy instrument band, and, hidden all over the hand-painted set with only their faces peeking out of the furnishings, a choir doubling as actors. And of course with hand-animated sequences and musical numbers every now and again. Of course, this is a recipe for failure (totally intended by writer/director Roee Rosen), and that's exactly what makes the film so much fun, especially since despite all the absurdity and intentional comedy, everything is played straight, and even if not verbatim, the movie pulls through with Kafka's full novella, and even affords itself time for a detour, a fake political show where a legal expert (Hani Furstenberg) explains an absurd (but actual) piece of legalisation aimed at Palestinian youths and losing her plot more and more.

Now the result of all of this is loads of fun, also because despite all the silliness the film never breaks its pretense and doesn't try to outdo itself again and again but sticks to its concept. If there's one thing, with a running time of a whopping 111 minutes, the film somehow loses a bit of its steam the longer it goes and could actually do with a good half hour less - but it's very entertaining still.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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