In this latest offering by the great Czech surrealist filmmaker, modern-day Prague is the setting for a shaggy dog story of six ordinary if somewhat seedy individuals who obsessively and painstakingly prepare their sexual "feasts." Like fastidious but inspired chefs, they concoct-with the aid of the most eclectic array of objects, animals, devices, and processes-an orgasmic meal of hilarious and literally explosive results. A postwoman, shopkeeper, television presenter, detective, and two odd apartment dwellers secretly plunder their environments in search of magical ingredients. As their solitary paths cross, we see how Svankmajer condenses the sexual, social, and political in a society still breaking with the habits of a puritanical past. Svankmajer relates it all with mischievous misanthropy and a brilliant array of special effects and animation techniques.-Michael O'Pray