Alois Nebel

Plot Summary

Inspired by classic film noir and rendered in mesmerizing black-and-white rotoscope animation, this dark-hearted Czech drama traces the haunted memories and mysterious visions of a troubled train dispatcher through the shifting cultural and political landscape in the waning days of the Cold War. Preferring timetables to people, Alois Nebel leads a quiet life at a remote railway station on the Czech-Slovak border—disrupted only by the fog that brings hallucinations of trains from the past 100 years. Ghosts from Central Europe’s dark past—Nazi occupation, transportation of Jews, communists’ revenge on the Germans—ultimately send him on a nightmarish and ominous journey. Alois Nebel is based on Jaroslav Rudis and Jaromír 99's comic book trilogy that was the first modern graphic novel published in the Czech Republic.