The Hand (1965)
The Hand Review
The Hand is a 1965 Czechoslovak animated short film directed by Jiri Trnka. It’s an artistic, memorable short.
A delicate and secluded ceramist sees his orderly life turn upside down when a gigantic hand in a white glove invades his space, demanding that a sculpture of itself is made. This movie obviously stands for the dangers of communism. The filmmaker lived in communist Czechoslovakia, so he experienced firsthand the difficulties, demands and limitations of being an artist in such a controlling regime. The film’s hand acts as a symbol for the communist government.
The only issue of this film is that it often felt repetitious due to its overlong runtime of 18 minutes. This type of story could easily be done well and more effectively with length that is under ten minutes. But otherwise the film is very successful in making you feel paranoid and disturbed as this hand feels malevolent and almost godlike. The stop-motion animation done on this movie was wonderful with the main puppet looking great and being solidly expressive while the hand and the overall interior looked excellent too.
