Content/criticism
In 1945, the end of the Second World War was not far off. But some in Germany are still trying to leave the country and flee abroad. One of these is Sophie, who dreams of a new life in America together with her parents. But this dream is brutally shattered when the Nazi officer Scharf and the Soviet soldier Wassili kill their parents while they are in a hotel. Hitler Youth Beckmann is also present and witnesses the murder. This is just the beginning of the four’s shared story. They will continue to be in the hotel from which there is no escape and which continually pushes them to their limits…
Long lead time vision
Especially in this day and age, when new catastrophes seem to be happening all the time, a year sometimes seems like decades. The corona pandemic, for example, which became an existential experience for most people, has been forgotten by most people two years later – too much has simply happened since then. A quarter of a century becomes a period of time that is almost impossible to mentally understand. What’s even more impressive is that the director Heinrich Sabl actually a quarter of a century Memory Hotel worked, stuck to his vision despite a rapidly changing outside world and still brought his work to completion. Often announced and mentioned in articles, his animated film celebrated at the WHILE Leipzig 2024 world premiere.
The long working hours can be partly explained by the stop motion technique used. Films almost always take several years to do this, and even experienced filmmakers have to struggle with painstakingly bringing objects to life and using them to tell stories. But even then, the time it took Sabl is excessive. Especially since it’s not like he’s in Memory Hotel would have created breathtaking settings. The hotel is certainly atmospheric, strange from the start and becoming even more unreal as time goes on. The figures have also become very distinctive, with designs that are realistic without becoming interchangeable. Compared to other works in the segment, it’s still rather simple, so you shouldn’t expect any visual miracles.
Lots of scary mystery stuff
But you can wonder about other aspects – and not too briefly. When the four main characters come together, a wide variety of genres are conceivable, from a war drama to a chamber drama thriller. And yet it is at Memory Hotel It’s hardly possible to put what you’ve seen into one of these mental drawers. It’s just too strange what’s happening in this uninviting hotel. You shouldn’t reveal too much in advance about what’s going on. It would also not be easy to adequately convey what we saw in words. Of course, one could make comparisons, for example to the surreal nightmare of Alicepaired with Schachnovelle. And yet that would hardly do justice to the result.
Anyone who has a penchant for mysterious and eerie films will definitely get a lot here. There is a lot to speculate and interpret here when the film deals with the history of the war and its consequences. How much time we spend in the hotel is never clear. But it must have been years, since little Sophie later appeared as an adult and never left the building. She has become a prisoner of the place that cost her parents their lives, a prisoner of history and her memories, which compose themselves into a labyrinth-like setting where you have to contort yourself to be able to see a world outside. Only Sabl will be able to answer whether the decades of work were worth it. At least we can be grateful to him for taking us with him Memory Hotel has given you a work that will stay in your memory for a long time afterwards.
Credits
OT: „Memory Hotel“
Land: Germany, France
Year: 2024
Director: Heinrich Sabl
Script: Heinrich Sabl
Music: Erik Lautenschläger, Thomas Mävers
Camera: Heinrich Sabl
