Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

The first feature in 20 years from stop-motion animation legends the Brothers Quay is an episodic, shapeshifting, disorienting, death-etched fairytale. Amid a Gothic Eastern European landscape, Jozef undertakes an arduous journey into the Carpathian Mountains to reach a sanatorium where his ailing father will spend his dying days. Upon reaching his destination, he discovers that his father exists in a liminal state between life and death; that the facility is run by a six-armed doctor; that it warps perceptions of space and time; and that family trauma is a rabbit hole you can disappear into. Two decades after The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (MIFF 2005), the Brothers Quay are back with their third feature, which bowed in Competition at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival. Based, like their acclaimed early short Street of Crocodiles (MIFF 2002), on the work of Polish Jewish writer Bruno Schulz – whose 1937 novel was previously adapted by Wojciech Has for 1973’s surrealist epic The Hourglass Sanatorium – this project brings the 78-year-old identical-twin filmmakers’ career full circle. The Brothers Quay’s influence is vast, with directors such as Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, Wes Anderson and Christopher Nolan all vocal admirers of the cult filmmaking duo – and this is a rare opportunity to see their magic woven on the big screen. “A transporting, ghostly affair … The Quay Brothers’ trademark stop-motion animation is as haunting as ever, the delicate, banged-up puppets suggesting the characters’ emotional fragility and buried pains.” – Screen Daily