With a recorded introduction by Prof. Ewa Hanna Mazierska; Winner of Cannes Jury Prize 1973 and nominated for Palme d’Or; Voted fifth greatest Polish film of all time by Polish Museum of Cinematography.
Wheelchair accessible, English subtitles, £8.50 (concession) / £11.50 (full price)
If you want to attend this screening but find it unaffordable, you may be able to have the cost of your ticket, commute, and/or childcare covered by the Audience Access Fund — see here for further details.
A sublimely surreal Alice-in-Wonderland tale by renowned Polish director Wojciech Jerzy Has. Based on Bruno Schulz’s collection of stories, the film follows a young Jewish man named Joseph (Jan Nowicki) who arrives at a sanatorium to visit his father. He finds the hospital abandoned and decrepit; the few workers he does encounter act strangely, as if enchanted. As Joseph adventures deeper into the hospital’s labyrinthine rooms, he loses all grip on time, and of reality. The Hourglass Sanatorium boasts Has’ trademark visual splendour, his love of intoxicating colour, texture, and atmosphere. Yet within its creepy, surrealist aesthetic, the director weaves allegory to the more insidious, horrifying absurdities of Polish history; namely, the Nazi occupation during World War Two and the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Content notes: nudity, problematic language around race
Access notes: bright colours
Curated by Harriet Idle
Trailer
