Italy / 2025 / Fiction / 14’56”I2602780
In the heart of a night in 1962, amidst the hushed corridors and elongated shadows of a psychiatric hospital, a silent and ruthless confrontation unfolds between two forms of loneliness. A cynical, disillusioned nurse strikes a forced pact with a patient—a fragile yet lucid man—who is subjected to humiliating and inhumane practices in exchange for a semblance of peace. What begins as a power play slowly transforms into something more subtle: a mute dialogue between drifting souls, each trapped—differently—within the institution’s walls. As the night stretches on and time seems to dissolve, like sand in an upturned hourglass, the boundaries between victim and oppressor, sane and insane, begin to blur. The Human Hourglass is an intimate, minimalistic drama that explores the concept of suspended time and the possibility of redemption even in the most alienating of places. It is an existential tableau of shared solitude and the humanity that endures in the simplest gestures: a glance, a small act of care. In a world that suppresses and fractures, caring for another becomes the only possible act of revolution.
Director
Production
Referent
Sales
Sound designer
Matteo Bendinelli
Editing
Script
Alessandro Lui
Cast / With
Alessandro Lui
Paolo Mazzarelli
Ivano Picciallo
Decors
Vito Giuseppe Zito