Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life

Directed by Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Produced by Koninck Studios, Image Forum

A dreamlike, philosophically dense portrait of an absurd institution where servitude, desire, and psychological dissolution blur together in an atmosphere of mounting dread and interpretive uncertainty.

Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?