Taxandria - DaaVeeDee

Taxandria (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Fantasporto Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
80 min + 35 min extras

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1994 and produced in:
Belgium ( France, Benelux )
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Raoul Servais

Written By:
Frank Daniel
Raoul Servais

Actors:
Armin Mueller-Stahl ..... Karol / Virgilus
Elliott Spiers ..... Aimé Perel
Katja Studt ..... Princess Ailée
Richard Kattan ..... Jan
Julien Schoenaerts ..... Mr. Bonze
Andrew Sachs ..... André / Superintendent
Daniel Emilfork ..... First Minister
Cris Campion ..... Klooster
Robert Lemaire ..... Lamp
Joris Van Ransbeeck ..... Versalus
Ferenc Dávid Kiss ..... Taxandrian (as David Kiss Ferehl)
Zsuzsa Holl ..... Leading Lady (as Holl Zsuzsa)
John Truscott ..... Driver

Synopsis:

This European produced animation/live-action fairy tale will appeal to both children and adults. The frequently surrealistic work took 15 years to make and cost $15 million. It is the tale of young Prince Jan, who has been sent to a quiet coastal resort to study for his final exams, but instead Jan spends most his time with his new friend the lighthouse keeper. Jan ignores the warnings of the locals who claim that the loony lighthouse man eats sea gulls for breakfast. Maybe he is crazy, but this does not prevent the prince from entering the keeper's dream-land Taxandria, a phantasmagorical place devoid of time, memory, and progress. The land is ruled by a two-headed prince and his policemen who insure that everyone there lives in the Present (it is illegal to discuss the past or future). While at first, Taxandria seems a magical, wonderful place, Jan soon sees the darker sides of this strange world. The people are not happy living only in the present; it is repressive. Soon he sees that many suffer from extreme paranoia. One young man, Aime, seems to be a catalyst for change in Taxandria as he is obsessed with learning about the country's past. Later Jan falls in love with Ailee who is trying to free herself from the paradisiacal confines of the Garden of Mirth, where women are kept away from men.

A young prince is taken for tuition at a seaside hotel but there quickly bores and wanders off to visit a nearby lighthouse. Befriended by the keeper, he learns of a secret world he can see inside the light of the lamp - the world of Taxandria ruled by the dictatorship of the 'eternal present' where all machines, progress and time have been banned. However, a naive but creative printing clerk unwittingly causes a revolution when he upsets a printing press and tries to replace the spilled letters only to have his new words taken for a subversive code. On the run he falls in love with a palace princess, discovers the forbidden art of photography and sets out to fulfill his dream of building a flying machine.

Fairytale for both adults and children, combining animation with live action. Somewhere in central Europe, a young prince is sent to a sedate seaside hotel to revise for his exams. Instead, he befriends a mysterious lighthouse-keeper who introduces him to a fantasy world of no clocks and no memory where progress is banned - Taxandria. This apparently idyllic world is in fact rife with repression; the price people pay to live in this paradise is their freedom. One young man becomes curious about his country's past.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 18 April, 2010.

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