The Hourglass Sanatorium

The most mysterious film in Polish cinema, a masterpiece of world surrealism and one of the favorites of Cannes 1973.

What happens to memories when a person dies? Józef arrives at a strange sanatorium to visit his father and learns that death works with a delay here: the present does not disappear all at once, the past stubbornly returns, and behind every door of the endless corridors lies an entire world — memory, dream, or nightmare.

Based on the prose of Polish-Jewish writer and artist Bruno Schulz, Has’s film follows the nonlinear logic of memory rather than conventional storytelling. It is literally a journey through places of memory: childhood, loss, and fear.

🏆 Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.