Added to your basket
Arrow Films
WHO PROTECTS YOU WHEN YOU SLEEP?
Nightmare and trauma. Fear and repression. Guilt and atonement. Weaving together the emotional violence of horror with the cryptic motifs of German folk and fairy tales, Arrow Films is proud to present Sleep, the debut feature from a major new talent in world cinema.
Tormented by recurring nightmares of a place she has never been, Marlene (Sandra Hüller, Requiem) cannot help but investigate when she discovers the place is real. Once there, she suffers a breakdown and is admitted to a psychiatric ward. Determined to discover what happened to her, Mona (Gro Swantje Kohlhof), her daughter, follows and finds herself in Stainbach, an idyllic village with a dark history. What is it that so tormented her mother, and the people of Stainbach? What is the source of the nightmares she suffers? And who is the mysterious Trude that lives in the forest?
Richly conceived and confidently told, director Michael Venus draws influence from Mario Bava, David Lynch, Franz Kafka and the Brothers Grimm, but his voice is uniquely his own. As invested in substance and story as he is in style, Venus claws his way down to the roots of what haunts a people, a community, a nation and comes up screaming. "Will definitely keep you up at night" Joey Keough, Wicked Horror
Limited Edition Contents
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original DTS-MA 5.1 audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by film critic and historian Kim Newman & author Sean Hogan
- A Strange Dark Magic, a visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Sleepwalking through National Trauma, a visual essay by film critic Anton Bitel
- Dream & Folktale in Sleep, an interview with anthropologist, dream researcher, and filmmaker Louise S. Milne
- Talking in their Sleep, director Michael Venus and star Gro Swantje Kohlhof in conversation
- A Dream We Dream Together, a compilation of film festival introductions created during lockdown by director Michael Venus and the cast of Sleep
- Making Dreams Come True, a glimpse behind the scenes of Sleep
- Deleted Scenes, four deleted scenes
- Marlene's Sketches, explore the many obsessive dream journal sketches that are only glimpsed in the film, created by artist Christoph Vieweg, presented here in full
- Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative
- Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Alison Peirse, an interview with director Michael Venus, and Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Frau Trude"
- Double-sided fold-out poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative
- Arrow Video
- 102 mins approx
- 15
- German
- 1
- Arrow Video
- Michael Venus
- Gro Swantje Kohlhof
- Sandra Hüller
- August Schmölzer
- English
- 2020
- B
Sleep Limited Edition Blu-ray
Earn 50 reward points when purchasing this product*
RRP: £24.99
£5.00
Save: £19.99
In stock
Live Chat
Average connection time 25 secs
Average connection time 25 secs
Arrow Films
WHO PROTECTS YOU WHEN YOU SLEEP?
Nightmare and trauma. Fear and repression. Guilt and atonement. Weaving together the emotional violence of horror with the cryptic motifs of German folk and fairy tales, Arrow Films is proud to present Sleep, the debut feature from a major new talent in world cinema.
Tormented by recurring nightmares of a place she has never been, Marlene (Sandra Hüller, Requiem) cannot help but investigate when she discovers the place is real. Once there, she suffers a breakdown and is admitted to a psychiatric ward. Determined to discover what happened to her, Mona (Gro Swantje Kohlhof), her daughter, follows and finds herself in Stainbach, an idyllic village with a dark history. What is it that so tormented her mother, and the people of Stainbach? What is the source of the nightmares she suffers? And who is the mysterious Trude that lives in the forest?
Richly conceived and confidently told, director Michael Venus draws influence from Mario Bava, David Lynch, Franz Kafka and the Brothers Grimm, but his voice is uniquely his own. As invested in substance and story as he is in style, Venus claws his way down to the roots of what haunts a people, a community, a nation and comes up screaming. "Will definitely keep you up at night" Joey Keough, Wicked Horror
Limited Edition Contents
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original DTS-MA 5.1 audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by film critic and historian Kim Newman & author Sean Hogan
- A Strange Dark Magic, a visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Sleepwalking through National Trauma, a visual essay by film critic Anton Bitel
- Dream & Folktale in Sleep, an interview with anthropologist, dream researcher, and filmmaker Louise S. Milne
- Talking in their Sleep, director Michael Venus and star Gro Swantje Kohlhof in conversation
- A Dream We Dream Together, a compilation of film festival introductions created during lockdown by director Michael Venus and the cast of Sleep
- Making Dreams Come True, a glimpse behind the scenes of Sleep
- Deleted Scenes, four deleted scenes
- Marlene's Sketches, explore the many obsessive dream journal sketches that are only glimpsed in the film, created by artist Christoph Vieweg, presented here in full
- Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative
- Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Alison Peirse, an interview with director Michael Venus, and Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Frau Trude"
- Double-sided fold-out poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative
- Arrow Video
- 102 mins approx
- 15
- German
- 1
- Arrow Video
- Michael Venus
- Gro Swantje Kohlhof
- Sandra Hüller
- August Schmölzer
- English
- 2020
- B
Customer Reviews
Top Customer Reviews
Where reviews refer to foods or cosmetic products, results may vary from person to person. Customer reviews are independent and do not represent the views of The Hut Group.
Sleep
A great German horror about a blend of nightmares and reality and the ghosts of the past. An excellent Arrow release with very interesting extra materials!
Was this helpful?
A Jenga Tower nightmare
I bought this as it promised to be in the vein of Lynch, Mario Bava, Franz Kafka and the Brothers Grimm. The outline story is about a daughter (Mona) who helps her mother (Marlene) during recurring nightmares about a place she´s never been. One day the mother finds an advert for the place in a flight magazine (the mother works as an air stewardess). The mother steals away to the place telling her daughter she´s off to work. Upon arrival and settled into her room Marlene falls into a stupor and is taken in at the local hospital and Mona has no choice but to take a room at the only hotel in Stainbach. A place with a dark history. Mona starts to investigate the place using her mothers dream diaries full of images. Mona uncovers a wealth of sinister secrets and is plagued by unsettling visions in both her waking and slumbering states. Michael Venus plays with these liminal states of consciousness, often visually arresting, with repeated, terrifying images of people in pig masks and flaming destruction. It´s obvious references to The Shining as the hotel is preparing to go to sleep as it is off season. Michael Venus has seen a lot of cinema and uses the influence to enrich his own film, but make no mistake he has a voice of his own. And I can´t wait for his next project. This one was as scary as The Shining. 5 stars as it´s a debut.
Was this helpful?
