Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life Backdrop Blur
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life Poster

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life

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?

Top Cast

  • Alice Krige

    Alice Krige

    Lisa Benjamenta

  • Mark Rylance

    Mark Rylance

    Jakob

  • Gottfried John

    Gottfried John

    Herr Benjamenta

  • Daniel Smith

    Daniel Smith

    Kraus

  • Joseph Alessi

    Joseph Alessi

    Pepino

  • Jonathan Stone

    Jonathan Stone

    Hebling

  • César Saratxu

    César Saratxu

    Inigo

  • Peter Lovstrom

    Peter Lovstrom

    Jorgenson

  • Uri Roodner

    Uri Roodner

    Schilinski

Overview

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?

Rating

7.8 / 10
48 Reviews
1 Popular

Trailers & Clips

Recommendations

The Lords of Discipline

Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.

The Lords of Discipline

6.6 1983
The Kindness of Strangers

Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.

The Kindness of Strangers

6.3 2019