Description:
Díaz Torres creates a visual feast of absurd situations in which different film genres such as horror and Hollywood-style comedy combine with animation. Satirizing the inefficiency, opportunism and indolence embedded in Cuban bureaucracy, Alice in Wondertown was banned by government authorities shortly after its release.
As with the original Lewis Carroll character, Díaz Torres's Alice, a drama teacher, embarks upon a journey at a crucial point in her life. She decides to go to Maravillas (Wondertown) to find herself, and, hopefully, to find a way to become useful to society. But Maravillas is populated by 'fallen angels', bureaucrats who used to work for the state until they were found guilty of corruption and exiled to this Purgatory. Mirrors become doors, circus animals walk the streets - it seems anything can happen, and everyone except Alice seems resigned to the situation.
"I don't distinguish between movies that make people think and the ones that are fun. /.../ Of course, there are bad comedies, as well as bad dramas, and anyone's movie can go wrong, but it has nothing to do with genre." (Daniel Díaz Torres)