Alois Nebel

MUST SEE: Tomas Lunak's Alois Nebel (Czech, 2011) - After the Velvet Revolution, a fiftysomething Sudetenland train dispatcher is visited by ghosts from his and the region's past in "Alois Nebel," the visually accomplished feature debut of Czech helmer Tomas Lunak. A portrait of the fractured psychology of a man and his country, this animated adaptation of Jaroslav Rudis and Jaromir 99's graphic-novel trilogy might be too historically and regionally specific to fully resonate abroad, though Lunak's superbly atmospheric black-and-white rotoscope feature does rep yet another impressive adult-oriented entry in the animated genre. Sept. 29 local release might work as an upscale niche item offshore. 2011VENoc, 2012OE, 2012PALM, 2012SEA. RATING: 8.