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 realise 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 The Quay Brothers
Screenplay Brothers Quay / Bruno Schulz
Producer Lucie Conrad
Cast Tadeusz Janiszewski, Wioletta Kopańska, Andrzej Kłak
Sales agent The Match Factory
Credits summary BFI, Telewizja Polska S.A., Koninck Studios SpK Galicia, and IKH Pictures Production, with The Match Factory, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Festival highlights The Venice Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival