The world's first Esperanto noir — subtitles required, commitment optional.
Angoroj (1964; Esperanto for "Agonies") was the first feature film to be produced entirely in Esperanto. (Jacques-Louis Mahé, a friend of Raymond Schwartz and under the pseudonym of 'Lorjak', had however already produced a silent Esperanto publicity film before World War II, titled Antaŭen! (Onwards!). At the start of the 1960s Mahé, a professional photographic and cinematic expert, invested in the production of the first fictional film in Esperanto. Using a scenario by Mahé himself, the actors of the Internacia Arta Teatro (International Arts Theatre) presented a crime story, set in the Parisian periphery of petty thieves and cheats. Other notable people who played parts in the film included Schwartz (the commissioner), Gaston Waringhien (the voice-over) and many from the environs of the contemporary Paris, including a very young Michel Duc-Goninaz.
Production
Made on pure stubborn idealism — zero commercial prospects.
Acting
Amateur troupe gamely emoting in a constructed language.
Director
Jacques-Louis Mahé
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
William Shatner later starred in the second Esperanto feature, Incubus (1966), allegedly learning the language phonetically without understanding it.
The film emerged from Paris's vibrant Esperanto community, with cast drawn from the Internacia Arta Teatro — art as propaganda for a doomed universal language.
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