“Parable” Plus Three More Films by Rolf Forsberg

This quartet compilation of short works by maverick, unpredictable, now-93-year-old writer-director Rolf Forsberg strongly hints at the array of idiosyncratic styles that he cooked up over four decades. Best known for co-directing the 1979 biblical doomsday documentary The Late, Great Planet Earth (narrated by Orson Welles), Forsberg's greatest honors came for the strange 1964 short “Parable.” A tale about Jesus Christ told as an allegory set in a circus, “Parable” was entered into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 2012 and received accolades at major film festivals upon its release. “Parable” presents Jesus as a donkey-riding clown who wanders into a circus and draws the instant loyalty of some and wrath of others, culminating in a unique variation on the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Relatively crude in technique, the film's real draw is such dreamlike touches as human marionettes and a circus audience of hoodied children. The second short, 1966's “The Antkeeper,” tells another surreal tale about Christ, in which an old man turns his son into an ant. Narrated by Fred Gwynne, “The Antkeeper” is somewhat reminiscent of “bad trip” scenes from the era's B-movies. Forsberg turns his attention to the environment in the 1970 shoestring-budgeted “Ark,” a dystopian and effective fable about a survivor of ecological devastation who tries to save a pond by bringing some of its critters and plants inside an old greenhouse. Finally, 1973's “One Friday” is a weird little peacenik movie about the end of innocence, in which a toddler walks past the corpses of his parents only to find many more bodies strewn around in a civil war that is about to claim him as well. Viewers have the option of watching all of the selections with brief, often illuminating introductions featuring Forsberg himself. A solid collection of classic religious shorts, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)