Synopsis

Paul Fierlinger uses watercolored cel animation, charcoal and pencil sketches and family photographs to animate the incredible twisting story of his youth. Born in Japan, the son of a Czechoslovakian politician, Fierlinger became a refugee with his family in America at the start of World War II. There, he was placed in a series of foster homes so as not to distract his parents from their busy lives. At the end of the war, when his father became a major official in Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia, Paul accompanied his parents to a homeland he had never known, and personal and political rifts between father and son began to widen.

Paul Fierlinger

Paul Fierlinger made his first commissioned animated film in Prague in 1958. He has worked as a freelance animator and director in Paris, Hilversum, Munich, New York and Philadelphia, making over 800 films over a period of 51 years. Sandra Fierlinger studied Fine Arts in Boston and Pennsylvania. She graduated in 1978 and started out as a horticulturalist. In 1989 she joined Paul Fierlinger’s studio beginning as a cel colourist and background painter and soon worked her way up to make an equal contribution in all aspects of film production. The Fierlingers have been working together for 20 years on many award-winning TV films, series and commercials and authorial projects..