SYNOPSIS
A ghostly train journey on a forgotten branch line transports a son, Jozef, visiting his dying Father in a remote Galician Sanatorium. Upon arrival Jozef finds the Sanatorium entirely moribund and run by a dubious Doctor Gotard who tells him that his father’s death, the death that has struck him in his country has not yet occurred, and that here they are always late by a certain interval of time of which the length cannot be defined. Jozef will come to realise that the Sanatorium is a floating world halfway between sleep and wakefulness and that time and events cannot be measured in any tangible form.
DIRECTORS’
BIOGRAPHY
The Quay Brothers were born in 1947 near Philadelphia where they studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, then later in London at the Royal College of Art. In 1980 they formed Koninck with colleague Keith Griffiths and since then have produced a hybrid collection of film work: puppet animation, documentaries, interludes, commercials, and installations. They have also designed decors for the Theatre, Opera and Ballet {including filming 3 ballets}, as well as directing three live-action feature films. Many of their films have been inspired by the writings of authors including: Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Robert Walser, Stanisław Lem, & Felisberto Hernández. Music is key to their work and composers include: Karlheinz Stockhausen {In Absentia}, Krzysztof Penderecki {Maska, Inventorium of Traces}, Bartók {Sonata for Solo Violin}, Witold Lutosławski {String Quartet Nr. 4}, Olga Neuwirth {The Calligrapher}, Zdeněk Liška{The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer, The Phantom Museum}, Louis Andriessen {Theatre of the World}, Timothy Nelson {Through the Weeping Glass, Unmistaken Hands, & Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass}, Michèle Bokanowski {The Doll’s Breath} and Alfred Schnittke {Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass}. In 2012 the QQs were the subject of a grand retrospective exhibition at MoMA, New York entitled Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets, which featured work spanning their entire career, tracing back as early as childhood, with much of the material shown for the first time.
SELECTED DIRECTORS
FILMOGRAPHY
2019 The Doll's Breath
2014 Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
2012 Metamorphosis
2011 Through the Weeping Glass
2010 Maska
2008 Inventorium of Traces
2007 Eurydice, She so Beloved
2004 The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
2003 Songs for Dead Children
2002 The Phantom Museum
1994 Institute Benjamenta
1991 The Comb
1987 Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
1986 Street of Crocodiles
1985 This Unnameable Little Broom
DIRECTORS’ COMMENTS
The film is an exploration of motifs and themes taken from the mytho-poetic writings of Bruno Schulz integrating both puppets and live-action to score the demiurgic nervature of Schulz’s 13th apocryphal month in the Regions of the Great Heresy. Framing the narrative is an Auction house in lesser times and an Auctioneer in his greatest moment. For public auction! Lot 47: a wooden Optical Box penetrated by seven lenses, with a skilfully hidden drawer purportedly containing the deceased retina of its original owner and said to liquefy once a year when positioned correctly in the Sun’s rays thereby anointing each of the seven final images and thus setting them into motion one by one.
Within the Sanatorium’s labyrinthine corridors objects and events will roam with a force all their own. An eerie half-reality will set in, and Jozef will find himself caught in a disturbing web of memories, fantasies and visions to which he can only submit. He will find his Father, lose him in a dream, discover several at once, then lose him forever. Even Jozef himself will become multiple; one will die, another will be condemned to wander endlessly the Sanatorium's corridors, and the last will board the very same train he arrived on.
MAIN CAST
BIOGRAPHY
Tadeusz Janiszewski
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Tadeusz Janiszewski - actor, creator, director, theater educator. He is co-founder of "Teatr Ósmego Dnia”, one of the most important experimental, exploratory and contestation theaters in Poland and Europe. He made his debut in the early 1970s in theatrical activities with a group of visual artists, musicians and poets of the New Wave and in the Theatre of the Eighth Day's production "One breath" (1972), which became a voice of despair and rebellion against the totalitarian system in Poland. Since then, he has co-created all of Theatre of the Eighth Day's indoor and outdoor productions (remove 'to this day' as not needed) , which are performed at various festivals of experimental and street theater in Europe, Latin America, the US and Asia. In 1989, he co-created the great European theatrical event "Mir Caravan," which travelled Europe in caravans from Moscow to Paris constituting a great celebration of art freedom just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He conducted theatrical workshops based on the unique working method of the Eighth Day Theater in many European centers and theaters and co-created theatrical activities based on the "site-specific" method, also in prisons. Tadeusz collaborated on theatrical productions with artists from Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland. He has participated in documentary films (e.g. "Teater Åttonde Dagen" directed by Joanna Helander and Bo Persson, prod. Sweden 1992) and television productions of plays by the Eighth Day Theater (e.g.: "No Man's Land", "Rise", "Folders").
Wioletta Kopańska
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Wioletta Kopańska (remove the word 'has') graduated from acting at the Academy of Theater Arts in Wroclaw, Poland. She made her debut on the stage of the Municipal Theater in Leszno in the play "Sexmisja" directed by Joanna Drozda. On screen, she made her debut in the film "Małe stłuczki". She can be seen in the series "Sexify 2" on Netflix, directed by Kalina Alabrudzinska, and in the play "Smiling" directed by Jagoda Szelc. Soon Wioletta will be seen in the series "Czarne stokrotki" directed by Mariusz Palej for Canal+. The short film "Keine Einzige Mehr" directed by Masha Mollenhauer, will premiere on 2025.
Andrzej Kłak
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Andrzej Kłak, a theater and film actor.
He has performed in productions directed by Krystian Lupa, Anna Smolar, Anna Ilczuk, Ewelina Marciniak, Jakub Skrzywanek, Krzysztof Garbaczewski, Monika Strzępka, Radosław Rychcik, Jan Klata and Michał Zadara. For his role in the play "O dobru" directed by Monika Strzępka, he received the award for Best Supporting Actor at the 5th Boska Komedia International Theatre Festival in Krakow in 2012. In 2017 he received the award for Best Supporting Actor for his numerous roles in the play "Fuck Sceny Buntu" directed by Marcin Liber at the 10th Boska Komedia International Theatre Festival in Krakow. In 2018, he received the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Award from the "Teatr" monthly for Best Acting Creation in the 2016/2017 season for his role as Franz K. in "The Trial" by Franz Kafka, adapted, directed and designed by Krystian Lupa at the New Theatre in Warsaw. In 2023, he received the Best Actor award at the 16th Boska Komedia International Theatre Festival for his role in the play "Melodrama" directed by Anna Smolar.
On screen he has appeared in productions such as "1670" a series directed by Maciej Buchwald and Kordian Kądziela, the film "Joika" directed by James Napier Robertson, "Erotica 2022" directed by Anna Kazejak and the film "Prime Time" directed by Jakub Piątek, for which he received the award for Best Supporting Actor at the 2021 Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.
MAIN
CAST
Tadeusz Janiszewski
as Auctioneer and Voiceover
Wioletta Kopańska
as Auctioneer's Assistant, Chambermaid, Adela II
Andrzej Kłak
as Józef, Chimney Sweep
Allison Bell
as Adela I
Zenaida Yanowsky
as J
MAIN
CREW
Scenario: Quay Brothers
Realisation: Quay Brothers
Montage: Quay Brothers
Puppets, Decors: Quay Brothers
Animation Cinematography: Quay Brothers
Live-action Cinematography: Bartosz Bieniek PSC
Casting Director: Paulina Krajnik PCDG
Production Designer: Agata Trojak
Costume Designer: Dorothée Roqueplo
Make-up Artist: Anna Buttny
Sound: Joakim Sundström, Quay Brothers
Re-recording Mixer: Michał Fojcik
Digital Colour Grading: Michał Herman
First AD: Małgorzata Małysa
Line Producer: Małgorzata Małysa
Producers: Lucie Conrad, Izabella Kiszka-Hoflik
Executive Producers: Keith Griffiths, Mia Bays
Co-Producers: Viola Fügen, Michael Weber
Associate Producers: Marlena Łukasiak, Marta De Zuniga
TECHNICAL
DETAILS
International title: Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
Duration: 76 min
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: 24 fps
Sound: 5.1
Year: 2024
Original language: Polish
Countries of production: United Kingdom, Poland, Germany
Presented by: BFI
In association with: Telewizja Polska S.A.
Production Companies: Koninck Studios SpK Galicia Limited, IKH Pictures Production SP Z O.O.
Co-production Companies: The Match Factory, Adam Mickiewicz Institute/Culture.pl
Supported by: Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg