AllMovie

The 21-minute short Nocturna Artificialia (1979) marks the first credited work of Stephen and Timothy Quay, the British fraternal directing team known for their avant-garde puppet films. The story concerns a relentless dreamer who, intoxicated by the promise of the nighttime urban landscape that lies just beyond his flat, leaves the apartment, hops a tram, and rides through the wonders of the city after dark. The film is light on narrative but heavily laden with surrealistic visual detail, and evinces the stylistic and aesthetic origins of the many later works of The Brothers Quay.