Institute Benjamenta

At the beginning of the film we see Jakob knocking on a heavy front door. This is the door to a school for butlers. This is also the door to the hermetic world where the rest of the film takes place: Institute Benjamenta. The school is run by Mr Benjamenta and his sister, Lisa Benjamenta. When registering, Jakob explains to Mr Benjamenta that he didn't have any real life of his own so he thought it was best to become a butler and give his life some meaning and purpose. Jakob is immediately struck by the school's dream-like and remarkable atmosphere: his fellow students, the Benjamentas, and above all the enormous labyrinth of a house. The film that follows is a descent into alienation, longing and contradiction, as Jacob examines the house and its occupants. As the lectures become more and more absurd and the rooms become less and less coherent, finally defying all logical continuity, we witness the deepening relationship between Lisa Benjamenta and Jakob into an inexplicable nameless intimacy, as a moment's parallel solitude. The film is based on several texts by the Swiss author Robert Walser, who was one of Kafka's earliest influences. The contradictions in its portrayal of cinematic space brings to mind Orson Welles' version of Kafka's The Trial (1961), or Piranesi's beautiful prison series; life as a labyrinth. The Quay brothers (Timothy and Stephen Quay) are American twins who live in London. They are best known for their animation films, made using stop-motion, such as Street of Crocodiles (1986) and Anamorphosis (1988). Their films show a cruel, dark and often sur-realistic world where man's encounter with modernity is a central theme. Their films relate at the same time to painting and literature; sometimes thematically, sometimes through tangible images. Institute Benjamenta is the brothers' first feature film, yet it includes stop-motion animated sequences which have been interwoven into the rest of the dense film, you only become aware of them if you are extremely attentive. The Quay brothers' new film is accessible for a wide audience who now have the chance to find out what many of us have known for sometime: that the Quay brothers are among the leading and most interesting of contemporary ''European'' directors - remarkable, in the best sense of the word. PAS

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Medverkande
Mark Rylance, Alice Krige, Daniel Smith: Producent
Keith Griffiths & Janine Marmot: Manus
The Brothers Quay & Alan Passes, drawn from the novella “Jakob van Gunten” and other texts of Robert: Foto
Nic Knowland: Musik
Lech Jankowski: Talat språk
English