Jan vankmajer is a Czech animator and filmmaker born in Prague.

An early influence on his later artistic

development was a puppet theatre he was given for Christmas as a child. He contributed to Emil Radok's
film Doktor Faust in 1958 and then began working for Prague's Semafor Theatre where he founded the
Theatre of Masks. He then moved on to the Laterna Magika multimedia theatre, where he renewed his
association with Radok. This theatrical experience is reflected in vankmajer's first film The Last Trick, which
was released in 1964. Under the influence of theoretician Vratislav Effenberger, vankmajer moved from
the mannerism of his early work to classic surrealism, first manifested in his film The Garden (1968), and
joined the Czechoslovakian Surrealist Group.

JAN SVANKMAJER
JAN SVANKMAJER