TEHRAN – The Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran will screen the 1973 surrealist animated art film “Fantastic Planet,” directed by René Laloux, on Thursday.

The screening is set for 6 p.m., and the science fiction animation will be shown with Persian subtitles.

Its allegorical story, about humans living on a strange planet dominated by giant humanoid aliens who consider them animals, is based on the 1957 novel “Oms en série” by the French writer Stefan Wul. 

The story, set in the far future, deals with Oms (a play on the French word "hommes", meaning "men"), tiny people from Terre (French for "Earth"), who have been brought by the giant Draags to their home planet, Ygam. 

Some Oms are domesticated as pets, but others run wild in parks and are exterminated every two Draag years (one Draag year being roughly equivalent to 45 Earth years). The Draags' treatment of the Oms is ironically contrasted with their high level of technological and spiritual development. 

The protagonist is a domesticated Om named Terr (again, playing on the French word for Earth) who runs away and joins a group of wild Oms. He has learned some of the Draags' scientific knowledge while in captivity and uses this to forge a new, equal relationship with the Draags.

A co-production between companies from France and Czechoslovakia, “Fantastic Planet” was awarded the Grand Prix special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, and in 2016, it was ranked the 36th greatest animated movie ever by Rolling Stone.

SS/SAB