"Life imitates art far more than art imitates life" - Oscar Wilde
"MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN" FULL FEATURE
Reviews
"This beautiful piece of cinematic art is just gorgeous. It is such an exciting mystery and a journey to the glamorous past of theatre. I loved to hear your voice guiding me along on this fantastical road trip, letting me tag along as I imagined myself as a dancer in his show and part of a group of show ponies, show girls and vagabond gypsies. You and your grandfather have a similar essence as you are and have always been a Magical woman, Warm, Delightful and Thoughtful as this movie is as well. - Heather L
"This is a cleverly told visual story woven with evocative threads of magic realism (no pun intended), personal diary, vaudeville, documentary, and fairy tale with a nod to classic Black and White film making and photography. It is original, creative, sophisticated, moody, spooky and brilliantly conceived and executed."
-Jeffrey Vock
"I truly feel [Ken Burns] would be amazed, the way I was. I just loved the narrative.... the way you started to tell the story gripped me immediately... it was magical." - Woody
"Magical."
- William B. Golden
"Your storytelling skills are divine, a beautiful tale, curiously unique style, very cool." -Tyler English
"I am amazed and astonished and bewildered and so very impressed with your beautiful documentary fairytale. It is so you. First of all the editing work is unfreaking believable. So many amazing editing techniques and the way things come together. How on earth did you get a hold of all that footage and it's not just any footage - it exactly correlates with the whole magic theme and... is also amazing that you managed to get a hold of his footage from so many years ago. But also the way you sew everything together. Second, your voiceover is amazing. The way you deliver it, the tone, the pitch, the pace, the rhythm. You're such a storyteller - the way you tell stories in a cinematic way, literary way, narrative way, aesthetically. I got the goosebumps when I started watching. Your subject theme is
mystery and magic mystery, but also there's a compatibility between the theme and the way you present it so everything is very dark mysterious and lures you into this other world. - Oshrat
"Wow just want to let you know that I'm in the first 5 min and I have to say it's just magical! I'm loving it! It's so poetic! By the way I'm a professional cabalistic astrologer and I gotta tell you this movie has a lot to do with the energy of this year! I'm loving your movie!!! It's really touching me."
- Diana
"Loved the film! Very proud of you!!!"- Sandi Fellman
"I liked the dreamlike, evocative mood of the documentary, like stepping into the past... Fascinating story. I am a fan of the Mandrake comics and found it lovely that the author and your grandfather were happy to cross-promote each other without making trouble over IP. He seems to have been a wholesome guy in other aspects of his life" - SpaceShiprat
"Your film was so beautiful and sweet and creative and so you. I love, love, love it." - Jen Senko
"The amount of research you did was amazing, going to the lengths you did to find out more information about your granddad. I so respect that."
- Linda Woods
"Dear Käla thank you very much for giving us this film." - Jose
"The Manhattan resident’s hour-long, dream-like film is a personal journey into the old world of Vaudeville and... features Mandrake’s autobiographical writings, fictional interpretations and factual stories from family members, and reveals a few 'ghosts of the past,' as Käla tells it." - Tom Zillich
"Great work!!! I loved it!"
- Fiore DeRosa
From the Writer/Director:
“The film was initially created as a personal investigation into who my grandfather was,” the filmmaker explained. “But over time it evolved as my perspective shifted and changed. There was a world of material to research and explore, and I always wished for more. Paradoxically, it seemed the more information I gathered about him, the more unknowable he became. But I felt closer to him in a strange way. I think it was the journey in discovering who he was that made me understand him more profoundly. It seems the main purpose of his silence and secrecy was to ignite the imagination. He probably would have enjoyed seeing my attempt to figure out his mysteries.”
- Kala Mandrake (Interview with Tom Zillich)