Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass

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Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass

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1h 16m

Drama

Animation

Fantasy

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85%

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13 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

A ghostly train journey on a forgotten branch line transports a son, Jozef, visiting his dying Father in a remote Galician Sanatorium. Upon arrival, Jozef finds the Sanatorium entirely moribund and run by a dubious Doctor Gotard, who tells him that his father's death, the death that has struck him in his country, has not yet occurred and that here they are always late by a certain interval of time of which the length cannot be defined. Jozef will come to realize that the Sanatorium is a floating world halfway between sleep and wakefulness and that time and events cannot be measured in any tangible form.

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Toussaint Egan

RogerEbert.com

The film could not have arrived at a more vital or urgent time, existing as a perhaps unintended, albeit nonetheless appreciated exemplar of the power of art conceived through the meticulous labor and deliberation of human artisanship.

Rated: 4/4

Aug 29, 2025

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Nicolas Rapold

New York Times

If you close your eyes, you might wake up inside the movie, unstuck from time yourself.

Aug 28, 2025

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William Repass

Slant Magazine

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass becomes a film about its own condition of being an outsider to its own time, lost as it is in the aesthetics of another time that it views with a kind of nostalgic disquiet.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 24, 2025

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Siddhant Adlakha

Truthdig

In the Quays’ lucid cinematic dream world, nightmares are populated by dead-eyed dolls placed at the brink of their own demise, forced to confront the human condition, in all its mystery and horrific beauty.

Sep 3, 2025

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Ria Dhull

Spectrum Culture

With unbelievable craft, the Quay Brothers reconstruct the artificial world and haunting memories of Schulz’s novel.

Sep 3, 2025

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Matt Mahler

PopMatters

With their abstruse but nonetheless mesmeric and remarkably unique film, the Quay Brothers have regenerated Schulz’s myths yet again and with great poetry.

Rated: 7/10

Aug 29, 2025

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Stephen C

Success in 1 hour and 16 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/29/25

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Timothy Quay

Director

Bartosz Bieniek

Director

Stephen Quay

Director

Wioletta Kopańska

Voice

Tadeusz Januszewski

Voice

Andrzej Klak

Voice

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Synopsis

A ghostly train journey on a forgotten branch line transports a son, Jozef, visiting his dying Father in a remote Galician Sanatorium. Upon arrival, Jozef finds the Sanatorium entirely moribund and run by a dubious Doctor Gotard, who tells him that his father's death, the death that has struck him in his country, has not yet occurred and that here they are always late by a certain interval of time of which the length cannot be defined. Jozef will come to realize that the Sanatorium is a floating world halfway between sleep and wakefulness and that time and events cannot be measured in any tangible form.

Director: Timothy Quay, Bartosz Bieniek, Stephen Quay
Producer: Lucie Conrad, Izabella Kiszka-Hoflik, Izabela Kiszka-Hofilk
Screenwriter: Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay
Distributor: KimStim
Production Co: Telewizja Polska (TVP), IKH Pictures Production
Genre: Drama, Animation, Fantasy
Original Language: Polish
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 29, 2025, Limited
Runtime: 1h 16m