Dancing Silhouettes: Lotte Reiniger\u27s \u3ci\u3eThe Adventures of Prince Achmed\u3c/i\u3e: A Critical Study

Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed has been relegated to a curiosity in film history textbooks for some time. Known as the first surviving feature length animated film, it is talked about but rarely seen. However, it is more than just a point in a film history timeline. The film is a beautiful piece of art that engages with the time period in which it was made in a critical and political way. The subject matter, silhouettes as animation, the political atmosphere of Weimar Republic Era Berlin and the role of the spectator are all explored in this thesis in an effort to raise The Adventures of Prince Achmed out of obscurity