Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

The screening will be followed by a meeting with the creators – the Quay Brothers.

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass is an auteur adaptation of Bruno Schulz’s prose, crafted over two decades in a unique style. The Quay Brothers, praised by filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan, blend stop-motion animation with live-action footage, continuing their fascination with Schulz, which began in the 1980s with their award-winning short Street of Crocodiles. 

The film premiered in Venice in the prestigious Giornate degli Autori section, won the Musa Cinema & Arts Award, opened the London Film Festival, and was ranked among the best films of 2024 by the International Cinephile Society.

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass follows Józef as he arrives at a peculiar sanatorium where time has been reversed so that the deceased remain unaware of their own deaths. A magical optical box allows him to see his father in various incarnations.

The film was produced in Poland and features Wioletta Kopańska, Andrzej Kłak, and Tadeusz Janiszewski. The Quay Brothers made the bold choice to retain Schulz’s original phrasing, transforming the work into a hypnotic tribute to the writer’s imagination.

Quay Brothers – twins, born in 1947. They studied in Philadelphia and continued their education at the Royal College of Art in London, where in the 1970s they directed their first short films. In the 1980s, they made commercials (for Honeywell, Walkers Crisps, and Dulux Wood Protection), music videos (the most famous one – for Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer), and animations which made them popular – The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer, Street of Crocodiles. In 1995, their first feature film premiered: Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life, winner of the Bronze Horse in Stockholm and the jury’s award at the Fantasporto festival. Another full-length live acting film by the brothers is The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes. Their art is inspired by literature, especially by prose by Bruno Schulz and lately – Stanisław Lem.

Catalog MFF Nowe Horyzonty 10. edition

section partner

The retrospective is supported by the British Council under the UK/Poland Season 2025.