Forty-four years after it won the Special Prize at Cannes, the surreal animated allegory of Fantastic Planet is still one of the strangest, most alien experiences you can have in a cinema!

Directed by René Laloux (whose short The Snails screened at MIFF in 1967) and given its uniquely trippy visual appeal by surrealist Roland Topor, Fantastic Planet takes viewers to the Dali-esque world of Ygam where the human-ish Oms live like pets, or vermin, to the gigantic, intellectually advanced, blue-skinned Draags … until an Om named Terr, raised from infancy in a Draag household, escapes into the wild with access to his masters’ knowledge.

Topor, who along with Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain, MIFF 2015) and Fernando Arrabal co-founded the surrealist Panic Movement, wrote the screenplay with Laloux, adapting Stefan Wul’s novel Oms en série into a sci-fi parable on everything from racism and animal rights to systematic oppression and state-sponsored terrorism.

The uncanny animation, reminiscent of Monty Python’s Flying Circus as much as Hieronymus Bosch paintings, enhances the film’s otherworldliness; as does the psychedelic score by Alain Goraguer, which for MIFF has been reinterpreted by Melbourne prog-rock/jazz fusion group Krakatau, who will perform it live alongside the film as part of this special festival-only Hear My Eyes screening.

'A sci-fi fable of extraordinary beauty, cruelty and strangeness … recognized as one of the most important animated films aimed at adults.' – Pop Matters

Hear My Eyes screenings are audio-visual events that push the conventions of film and sound beyond their familiar forms. Translating the original cinematic experience for the 21st century, the Hear My Eyes team work with local musicians to reinterpret a film’s soundtrack and perform it live at the screening.

Please note: this event is not available on a MIFF Mini Pass or Passport.