The Adventures of Prince Achmed with live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley
Join us for a special screening of the magical animation The Adventures of Prince Achmed with live piano accompaniment by Meg Morley. Lotte Reiniger’s beautiful 1926 silhouette animation brings to life magical tales from the Arabian Nights.
Three years in the making, Lotte Reiniger’s beautiful 1926 silhouette animation, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, brings to life magical tales from the Arabian Nights. The earliest surviving animated feature film it has been hailed as one of the world’s most innovative and influential animations.
Handsome young Prince Achmed is brave and eager for adventure, so when the most powerful sorcerer in the world challenges him to fly a magic horse, Achmed plunges headlong into a series of exciting escapades that take him from Baghdad to China via the enchanted spirit lands of Wak-Wak.
Made in card, cut entirely by hand, and then manipulated using sheets of lead joined by wires, Reiniger’s exquisite shadow characters move intricately through colourful worlds of demons, witches, beautiful princesses and flying castles. The incredible talent and creativity shown here has influenced the animation in other films including Snow White, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Sword in the Stone.
Since performing her first improvised score for silent film in 2016, Meg Morley has regularly played at various international film festivals and has recorded original scores for several DVD releases. She is a house pianist for the British Film Institute (at Southbank) which commissioned her, in 2018, to compose, perform and tour a score for the Meg Morley Trio to accompany several silent films starring Mabel Normand. Meg is also an established regular performer at The Pocket Film Festival having played at most of our festivals since 2017.
There will be a papercuts workshop with artist Ruth Allen from 12-4 on the same day . You can book here or just drop in. Click here for information about the workshop and to book.
The Pocket Film Festival activities have been made possible with support from Film Hub Midlands through funds from the National Lottery. Film Hub Midlands support people to watch, show, and make films in the Midlands.