The Adventures of Prince Achmed

One of the world’s first animated feature films, Lotte Reiniger’s enchanting work uses intricate silhouettes made from cutout cardboard and thin sheets of lead, an animation technique she invented, to enact a tale from The Arabian Nights. The film tells the story of a wicked sorcerer who tricks Prince Achmed into mounting a magical flying horse. What follows is a series of wondrous adventures. “It impresses for its exquisite craftsmanship, balletic movement, expressive romanticism, and moments of potent sensuousness and poetry” (Wally Hammond, Time Out).