Pernat finds himself in a police interrogation, accused of a murder, and unable to recall any details of the crime, or even his own life. He's released back into a world of raving lunatics and deranged dentists, murderous doctors and scientists who believe the secret of human creation is inside the walls of a cast-iron oven.
Production
Crushing industrial sets that breathe like a dying machine.
Direction
Szulkin's camera crawls through corridors like a trapped insect.
Acting
Walczewski's hollow eyes contain multitudes of nothing.
Director
Piotr Szulkin
Marek Walczewski
Pernat
Krystyna Janda
Rozyna
Joanna Żółkowska
Miriam
Anna Jaraczówna
Old Woman
Mariusz Dmochowski
Holtrum
Wiesław Drzewicz
Miriam's Father
Henryk Bąk
Warehouseman in Detention Center
Jan Nowicki
Champion of Sleep
Wojciech Pszoniak
Prisoner
Krzysztof Majchrzak
Rozyna's Brother
Zofia Czerwińska
Janitor
Arkadiusz Bazak
Medical Chief
Zbigniew Buczkowski
Male Nurse
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made under Polish communist censorship, Szulkin smuggled Orwellian critique through sci-fi allegory the censors barely understood.
The claustrophobic factory sets were built in an actual abandoned industrial plant outside Warsaw, with actors performing among genuine rusted machinery.
PL
