Fehérlófia

"Fehérlófia" (The Son of the White Mare) is a tale by László Arany based on folk legends and made into a film by Marcell Jankovics in 1981 (the whole film is on youtube with subtitles). Fehérlófia is the superhuman hero of the tale, who swears to defeat three dragons who brought an end to the reign of the Forefather. In high school, at one of the first literature classes, when everybody had to tell a story he knew, I picked this one. It has always fascinated my imagination, especially the part when Fehérlófia fights the dragons and when he cuts his own legs off to feed the Griffin that brings him back from the Underworld. The story is full of symbolic characters and folk motifs. The animation builds on these, and extends them using both ancient and modern symbols. It is a surreal journey to the Underworld, an endless spin of colors from which new characters are born, often compared to an acid trip, probably because of the fact that the film exploits the Shamanic ("táltos") origins of the story. Here I am posting the introductory sequence, the birth of Fehérlófia. Even if you don't know the meaning of all the symbols, the story is just enchanting...