Synopsis
This European produced animation/live-action fairy tale will appeal to both children and adults. The frequently surrealistic work took 15 years to make and cost $15 million. It is the tale of young Prince Jan, who has been sent to a quiet coastal resort to study for his final exams, but instead Jan spends most his time with his new friend the lighthouse keeper. Jan ignores the warnings of the locals who claim that the loony lighthouse man eats sea gulls for breakfast. Maybe he is crazy, but this does not prevent the prince from entering the keeper's dream-land Taxandria, a phantasmagorical place devoid of time, memory, and progress. The land is ruled by a two-headed prince and his policemen who insure that everyone there lives in the Present (it is illegal to discuss the past or future). While at first, Taxandria seems a magical, wonderful place, Jan soon sees the darker sides of this strange world. The people are not happy living only in the present; it is repressive. Soon he sees that many suffer from extreme paranoia. One young man, Aime, seems to be a catalyst for change in Taxandria as he is obsessed with learning about the country's past. Later Jan falls in love with Ailee who is trying to free herself from the paradisiacal confines of the Garden of Mirth, where women are kept away from men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide