The legendary, visionary Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman has been a profound influence on whole generations of filmmakers from Jan Svankmajer to Tim Burton, the Quay Brothers to Terry Gilliam. His ground-breaking innovations in the use of live-action and animation mark him as one of the great masters of 20th Century fantasy cinema. A Jester's Tale is one of his most renowned and celebrated achievements. Described by Zeman as a pseudo-historical film, it is a bold anti-war black comedy following the adventures of a plowboy and a mercenary, press-ganged into service on the battlefields of the Thirty Years War of 1618 - 1648.Co-scripted by Pavel Juracek (Ikarie XB1, Daisies, Josef Kilián), Karel Zeman's brilliant comic film with its melding of live-action and animation, extraordinary matte work along with Escher-inspired impossible constructions, anticipates Gilliam's Monty Python animations (not to mention 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and Gilliam's own 'Jabberwocky' and 'The Adventure