In his own unique way, Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer has adapted a folk tale about Otesánek, a gluttonous child made from wood who gradually makes short work of every living thing around him. The story is set in the present day in a run-of-the-mill urban housing estate. Mr and Mrs Horák have yearned so much for a child that one day Mrs Horák sees the boy’s image in a tree stump which her husband brings home. At the appropriate moment the wood comes alive. However, his parents’ joy does not last long. Little Otík, as he is known, needs a constant supply of food until he finally starts procuring it for himself. He doesn’t even pass up the cat and a tubby social worker. Only the neighbour’s precocious daughter Alžbětka, who is familiar with the fairy tale, knows where the people in the block are disappearing to. Švankmajer conceived his film as a grotesque horror which develops into a parable about humankind’s arrogant efforts to defy nature. Like his previous feature-length films, here, too, the filmmaker combines live actors with special effects and exquisite animation in location scenes.