LITTLE OTÍK

Once upon a time there was a couple in Prague who longed for a child more than anything else in the world. But try as they would, no baby arrived. One day, however, the prying, suspicious neighbours – the precocious Alzbetka, the girl’s simple parents, the concierge, and old Mr. Žlábek – are astonished to see the wife is expecting a child. But when the “baby” arrives, the couple refuse to let anybody see the newborn. And they do so with good reason: the dejected husband has given his wife a substitute baby carved from the root of a mandrake. The root-child flourishes and grows – into a danger for the increasingly helpless parents and the rest of the community. A nightmarish fairytale based on the eponymous folk tale by Karel J. Erben.