Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppets is an animation by Chuck Gamble (US) of Lucky Radish Studio,
Was shown at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in 1994.

This allegorical cartoon focuses on a charming little misfit who lives in a sort of factory-prison run by a totalitarian state. After work each day, every laborer's hands are locked in a box to keep them out of mischief, but our hero finds a secret key that allows him to open the box and amuse himself by making funny finger-shadows on the wall. When caught, he's brutally punished - this is a cartoon for grownups, not young children - but he manages to triumph in the end. Drawn in strikingly bold black-and-white strokes, Gamble's animated tale is an effective parable of the human urge to maintain individuality and humor under even the most awful circumstances.