On 29 August 2024 the film “The Hourglass Sanatorium” will have its premiere in Venice. As part of the prestigious Giornate degli Autori competition, Quay Brothers will present an animation with elements of live-action film based on Bruno Schulz’s short stories. The Galician sanatorium will become the setting for events halfway between dream and reality. The Adam Mickiewicz Institute is a co-producer of the film.
A new film adaptation of “The Hourglass Sanatorium” by Bruno Schulz
The new film by Quay Brothers runs 76 minutes. It is based on short stories from “The Hourglass Sanatorium” collection by Bruno Schulz, first published in 1937 in Warsaw. An eerie journey along a forgotten railroad line leads Joseph to a remote Galician sanatorium, to meet his dying father. A shadowy Dr Gotard, who runs the facility, tells him that his father’s death, which caught up with him in his homeland, has not yet come to pass here, because at the Sanatorium everything is delayed for some indefinite period of time. Joseph realises that the Sanatorium is a world halfway between dream and reality, and that time and events there cannot be measured in any tangible form.
The film adaptation of Bruno Schulz’s prose is a British-Polish-German co-production. It was shot in Polish and combines elements of animation and live-action film. Starring: Tadeusz Janiszewski (the auctioneer), Wioletta Kopańska (the auctioneer’s assistant, maid, Adela II) and Andrzej Kłak (Joseph, chimney sweeper). Many Polish artists also worked on the creative concepts, especially concerning the acting part, which was shot in Poland.
Quay Brothers adapt Polish short stories from the interwar period
Quay Brothers describe “The Hourglass Sanatorium” as follows:
“The film is an exploration of motifs and themes drawn from Bruno Schulz’s poetic and myth-making writings, and incorporates puppet animation and live-action elements to convey the demiurgic nervousness of Schulz’s apocryphal thirteenth month from “Regions of the Great Heresy”. The narrative frame is a declining auction house and an auctioneer at his finest. Bidding begins now! Item number 47: a wooden Optical Box, pierced with seven lenses with a cleverly hidden drawer allegedly housing a retina from the original owner’s eye, which supposedly once a year, if properly positioned under the sun’s rays, goes into a liquid state anointing the seven final images, setting them in motion one by one. In the labyrinthine corridors of the Sanatorium, objects and events will circulate driven by their own power. An uncanny semi-reality will ensue, while Joseph will fall into a worrisome web of memories, fantasies and visions to which he can only succumb. The hero will find his father, lose him in his sleep, discover several fathers at once and then lose him once and for all. Even Joseph himself will be multiplied; one will die, another will be condemned to endless wandering in the corridors of the Sanatorium, while the last one will board the same train on which he arrived.”
Quay Brothers are the directing duo composed of brothers Stephen and Timothy. Born in the United States, they studied at the Philadelphia College of Art and later in London at the Royal College of Art. In 1980, they founded Atelier Koninck, their own film studio, together with a friend, Keith Griffiths. They have won numerous international awards ever since. In their productions they have developed a distinctive style combining elements of puppet animation and organic materials, with an important role of a soundtrack and a dark atmosphere. One of their most acclaimed works is “Street of Crocodiles” (1986), also inspired by Schulz’s work. To learn more about Polish themes in the work of American directors, visit Culture.pl. The premiere of “The Hourglass Sanatorium” will be followed by a Q&A session with Quay Brothers on 29 August, 5:00 pm.
“The Hourglass Sanatorium” (2024) – premiere in Venice
The film’s premiere will take place during Giornate degli Autori. The competition, which lasts 12 days, is an independent event that was established in 2004 and runs parallel to the Venice International Film Festival. Its goal is to draw attention to high-quality, unbounded, innovative, expressive and original cinema – these qualities are shared by films in the official selection and those presented at special events and side meetings. This year’s 21st edition is dedicated to Maria Teresa Pizzetti, who co-coordinated the first edition of the competition. “The Hourglass Sanatorium” will compete with 9 other productions for the official Giornate degli Autori awards.
The premiere of “The Hourglass Sanatorium” will take place on 29 August 2024 at 5:00 pm in the Sala Perla at the Palazzo del Casinò, where the official Giornate degli Autori competition screenings and special events take place (the former casino building on Lungomare Guglielmo Marconi, Lido di Venezia). The film will be shown at the same venue on 6 September 2024 at 9:00 am.
“The Hourglass Sanatorium” (2024)
- Direction and screenplay: Quay Brothers
- Photography: Bartosz Bieniek
- Editing: Quay Brothers
- Music: Timothy Nelson, Alfred Schnittke
- Sound editing: Joakim Sundström, Quay Brothers
- Set design: Agata Trojak (live-action); Quay Brothers (animation)
- Producers: Lucie Conrad, Izabella Kiszka-Hoflik
- Co-producers: Viola Fügen, Michael Weber
- Production: Koninck Studios SpK Galicia, IKH Pictures Production
- Co-production: The Match Factory, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute
- The film is presented by BFI in cooperation with the Polish Television and the support of Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg