Little Otik A.K.A. Greedy Guts A.K.A. Otesánek
(2000) 132 Min.
Rated: NR (Nudity, mild gore)
Country: Czech Republic, United Kingdom
Director: Jan Svankmajer
Stars: Veronika Zilková, Jan Hartl, Jaroslava Kretschmerová
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
A film based on the folktale “Otesánek” by K.J. Erben
Synopsis:
Karel Horák (Jan Hartl) and Božena Horáková (Veronika Žilková) cannot have children. Despite Božena’s hopes they medically cannot bear children. She is distraught and cries endlessly.
While the couple are vacationing in a weekend getaway home, Karel digs up a tree root. He cleans up the root and varnishes it. He then presents it to his wife. She gets extremely excited and perks up. She dresses up the root as a baby and clings to it, talking to it as one would a baby.
Karel sees this and decides to take away the “baby”, hitting it against a table, trying to convince his wife that it’s merely wood. Božena cries out that it’s their child. And after a few moments, Karel relents and allows her to keep the baby but only on weekends when they visit the cottage.
Božena comes up with an idea and tells the neighbors that she is really pregnant. She shows Karel all the pregnancy pillows she will use to convince the neighbors that she is carrying a child so that one day she can bring her wooden baby into the house and keep him with her all the time.
Time passes and increasingly Božena wears larger pillows to create an illusion of being pregnant, meanwhile not allowing anyone to touch her belly. On the weekends they visit the root baby and treat it as if it were real.
Božena decides that she wants to “give birth” in the 8th month since she is tired of waiting. So finally one day she is going into labor and Karel drives her back to the cottage. She goes inside and happily cradles her baby.
Karel leaves Božena to take care of the baby at the cottage for a week as she’s supposed to be in a hospital.
Karel is at the neighbors apartment to celebrate the birth of the baby. Alžbětka (Kristina Adamcová), who is the neighbor’s young daughter, asks him questions about the newborn. Karel proclaims the baby named Otik and that he’s a boy. Alžbětka grows suspicious that there is something amiss when she realizes Karel was talking to the “hospital” from a disconnected phone.
The next day when Karel goes to pick up Božena, he hears Otik make baby noises. It cries and suckles like a real baby. Karel is horrified and tries to destroy Otik with an ax but Božena convinces him that it’s their child and they should take care of it.
One day, while feeding Otik his 5 bottles, Otik bites on Božena’s hair. He won’t let go so Karel has to cut her loose. Otik then eats the hair in his mouth. Karel wishes that he had killed Otik at the start, but Božena feels Otik is telling her to get a hair cut.
Alžbětka gets a book on the folktale “Otesánek”. She reads the fable about the couple who take care of a root like a child. In the story the fable eats its parents.
Meanwhile Božena and Karel come home with bags of groceries and finds that their cat has been eaten by Otik. Karel wants to get rid of Otik, but each time Božena convinces him that they’ll never have any other child and that Otik is their responsibility.
Otik grows and ends up eating the postman. Karel delivers the rest of the mail to hide that he’s missing. Soon a social worker visits and she, too becomes a victim of Otik. Otik is now taller than most humans.
Fed up, Karel takes Otik and places him in a locked box in the basement of the building. It is here that Alžbětka finds him and decides to feed Otik the people in the apartment. Alžbětka also learns that, in the fable, the otesánek keeps eating people until an old woman who grows cabbages gets angry and splits its stomach open with her hoe.
First the perverted old man, Mr. Žlábek, comes down and is eaten by Otik. Karel, learning of Mr. Žlábek disappearance, decides to go to the cellar to kill Otik with a chainsaw. Instead, upon seeing Otik he utters the word “son” and is killed by Otik. Soon after Božena follows him into the cellar and is also killed.
Finally, Otik starts to eat the cabbages that an old lady planted outside of the house. She, knowing the fable and fed up with the murders, picks up a hoe to finish off Otik. Alžbětka pleads with her not to kill Otik, but is ignored. Alžbětka cries as the old woman walks past her. She recites the last lines of the fable as the film ends.
Review:
This is a very odd little tale. It has some very interesting animation and some great themes to it. There are themes of sexuality, puberty, birth and death seen in this film. Though the tale is fantasy, there is some horror aspects and also it’s probably mostly considered a comedy.
The film knows that the very idea is ridiculous and plays that up as well. I would have to say that overall this film was entertaining. I think the disturbing look of Little Otik himself, and the amusing animation, is something that would make the film worth seeing.
If you’re into an unusual but entertaining film, you should probably look this one up.