Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995)
• August 1st, 1995 • 1h 44min
Drama
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?
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
Pan's Labyrinth
Released on: 2006-10-11
Fantasy, Drama, War
In post–civil war Spain, 10-year-old Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to live under the control...
25th Hour
Released on: 2002-12-19
Crime, Drama
On the eve of a seven-year prison sentence, a New York drug dealer spends his final day of freedom c...
Newsies
Released on: 2017-02-16
Music, Comedy, Drama, History, Romance
A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When t...
A Tree Fell in the Woods
Released on: 2025-06-08
Drama, Comedy
What happens when a tree falls in the woods and someone does hear it? Two couples are forced to deal...
Shooting Dogs
Released on: 2006-03-08
Drama, History
Two westerners, a priest and a teacher find themselves in the middle of the Rwandan genocide and fac...
Alphaville
Released on: 1965-05-05
Drama, Science Fiction, Mystery
Lemmy Caution is on a mission to eliminate Professor Von Braun, the creator of a malevolent computer...
Neandertal
Released on: 2006-07-18
Drama
17-year-old Guido suffers since his early childhood from neurodermatitis. After being taken to the h...
Radio Inside
Released on: 1994-03-15
Romance, Drama
As two brothers fall in love with the same woman they must come to grips with the accidental death o...
O'Horten
Released on: 2007-12-26
Drama, Comedy
Odd Horton is dependable and contained: he's a train driver retiring after 40 years of service, livi...
The Tree of Life
Released on: 2011-05-17
Drama, Fantasy
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the e...
Sweet Mud
Released on: 2006-09-21
Drama
Set in mid-70's, 12-year old Dvir Avni navigates between the equality values of his home-born Kibbut...
Protozoa
Released on: 1993-01-01
Drama
Darren Aronofsky’s AFI short opens with angry slacker Dave sitting in a dreary, empty junkyard. Dave...
The Secret Garden
Released on: 1993-08-13
Drama, Family, Fantasy
A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is ...
Possum
Released on: 2018-10-26
Drama, Horror, Thriller
A disgraced children's puppeteer returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his wicked ...
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Released on: 1996-03-22
Comedy, Drama
An unattractive 7th grader struggles to cope with suburban life as the middle child with inattentive...
Sense and Sensibility
Released on: 1995-12-13
Drama, Romance
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, learn that their prospects of marriag...
Babette's Feast
Released on: 1987-08-11
Drama, History, Comedy
A French housekeeper with a mysterious past brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite mea...
Mary Reilly
Released on: 1996-02-23
Drama, Horror, Thriller
A housemaid falls in love with Dr. Jekyll and his darkly mysterious counterpart, Mr. Hyde.
Freche Mädchen
Released on: 2008-07-17
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Teenage best friends Mila, Hanna and Kati play matchmaker to their teachers while helping each other...
Mohabbatein
Released on: 2000-10-27
Drama, Romance
At a prestigious all-male university, three friends seek love outside of the school grounds; at the ...