Flatpack Film Festival: The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Flatpack Film Festival takes over venues across Birmingham every spring, and this year it’s coming to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. With a mixture of films, performances, contraptions and surprises, Flatpack aims to show people things they might not have otherwise seen.

Created over three years by pioneering silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger and a small team (including such notable avant-garde filmmakers as Walter Ruttmann and Berthold Bartosch), The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film.

Freely adapted from the Tales of 1001 Nights, the quest for a magic lamp takes us across oceans and down into volcanoes, battling with dragons, demons and witches along the way. Over 90 years later and it’s still enrapturing and captivating audiences of all ages today. The screening will be accompanied by a brand new score collaboratively written and performed by a group of composition students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.