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?
Stephen Quay
Director, Writer
Timothy Quay
Director, Writer
Alan Passes
Writer
Alice Krige
Lisa Benjamenta
Mark Rylance
Jakob
Gottfried John
Herr Benjamenta
Daniel Smith
Kraus
Joseph Alessi
Pepino
Jonathan Stone
Hebling
César Saratxu
Inigo
Peter Lovstrom
Jorgenson
Uri Roodner
Schilinski
Le Procès73%
Under the Silver Lake63%
All Day and a Night62%
Lorelei59%
Bronson69%
La joven69%
Goodbye June66%
The Color Purple77%
Kiss of the Spider Woman69%
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl72%
Cape Fear72%
May December65%
Room79%
Girl in the Bunker71%
The Magdalene Sisters74%
Nowhere to Run65%
The Experiment63%
I'm Thinking of Ending Things65%
Byzantium62%
Die My Love61%
