Short Film Review: “Adventures in Cuckooland”

Dir: Matt Robinson
UK • Documentary • 6 Mins

Adventures in Cuckooland is a short documentary about a cuckoo clock museum (Cuckooland) and its idiosyncratic proprietor, Roman Piekarski.

The documentary delightfully ticks along, highlighting the history and passion behind the museum (the only one of its kind!) which houses over 700 cuckoo clocks all made within a 25-mile radius of Southern Germany. The film is beautifully shot and edited giving you a real sense of the expanse and scale of the collection and is perfectly accompanied by some apt sound design and clockwork music.

Adventure in Cuckooland isn’t as much a documentary about a cuckoo clock museum as much as it is about British eccentricities yet, despite the notable irony of the subject matter being a cuckoo clock museum, there’s no judgment here at all as the documentary serves to celebrate these most British of qualities, leaving you with nothing but admiration for owner Roman Piekarski who is as full of as many pearls of wisdom as he is with devotion to his collection.

In Adventures In Cuckooland director Matt Robinson has created a very unassuming, feel-good, non-judgemental documentary that's a joy to watch and if it doesn’t make you want to pay Cuckooland a little visit, you’ll certainly be inspired by the passion behind it.

8/10

Adventures in Cuckooland was nominated for Best Documentary at our 2022 film festival.

Reviewed by Philip Pugh