The Hourglass Sanatorium

(Sanatorium pod klepsydrą)


1973   >   Psychological drama

Awarded the Special Jury Award at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.

One of the most visually stunning and original Polish films ever made.

Directed by extraordinary Polish director Wojciech Jerzy Has.

A film based on Bruno Schulz’s prose, a blend of poetic and psychological cinema.

The story of a man, Józef who while visiting a sanatorium, where his deceased father stayed, is transported to a mysterious, surreal world of metaphoric imagination.

He travel through past time loops, his childhood years and fantastic dreams. Józef travels freely through time, once a boy, once a grown man. 

While trying to repeat one loop to the world of Jewish small towns and Jewish culture, present in his imagination, appearing destroyed and depopulated after the Holocaust’s tragedy.

A poetic reflection on evanescence and the inevitability and irreversibility of death.


Crew:

director
Wojciech Jerzy Has
script
Wojciech Jerzy Has
d.o.p.
Witold Sobociński
designer
Jerzy Skarżyński, Andrzej Płocki
costumes
Lidia Skarżyńska, Jerzy Skarżyński
editor
Janina Niedźwiecka
music
Jerzy Maksymiuk
cast
Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat,
Irena Orska, Halina Kowalska,
Gustaw Holoubek

Awards:

IFF, Cannes
Jury Award
Trieste
Golden Asteroid- Fantasy Film Festival
PFFF, Gdynia
Art direction award (Jerzy Skarżyński, Andrzej Płocki)
Materials: HD
Length: 119’

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