Adult Bedtime Stories

A series of humorous animated short films inspired by ancient literary and ethnographic stories on sex and eroticism. These ancient tales, spanning from Asia to Europe, Africa, Oceania, America, and beyond, are fun, absurd, entertaining, and educational. Some of those stories are well-known – familiar from Decameron, for example – and some very obscure, gems from the past. Each episode stays true to the visual style of the era and the place depicted, while also demonstrating that basic human needs and quirks have remained largely unchanged over the centuries. While the films stay true to their historical origins, their adaptation and humorous twists added by the scriptwriter-director bring these stories further into dialogue with our contemporary sensibilities. The allegorical treatment of the subject matter, combined with stunning visual style, makes these spicy “adult bedtime stories” suitable for screening or broadcasting without the need for censoring. The films are accompanied by narration, performed – ideally – by well-recognized actors in the style of bonfire storytelling.

Director’s statement
The series idea grew out of my experience of directing Ted-Ed animated lectures. Before that, I had always been working with my own original stories and designs, whether in stop-motion or 2D animation. Having an opportunity to fit into the already existing narrative and make it my own, and to study historical aesthetics, was a great discovery for me, which I wanted to keep on exploring.
So, together with the art director Gyopár Buzási, with whom I had worked on Ted-Ed, we came up with a concept of a historical audiovisual journey that relates to a certain topic — in our case, eroticism. This opened the exciting field of ancient stories, designs, and music that are still inspirational and relevant in our times.
With the Adult Bedtime Stories series, we want to bring these treasures of storytelling to life for people to enjoy them the same way as we do. The ancient stories were much less author-based — every storyteller added to them their own interpretation. We are continuing this tradition.
It’s a great honor to communicate with the past through the tales that have survived for so long, and to prolong their journey in a different medium. This is our mission.