"Mona," the adult daughter of "Marlene" travels to the remote Sonnenhügel Hotel to find out why her mother trashed a hotel room before lapsing into a "stupor." Prior to traveling to the hotel, Marlene had remarked to Mona that she had experienced four dreams involving this same place. In each dream, a different man had killed himself. But in the fourth dream, there was a stronger man present, though he was becoming weaker with time. This place really exists, she tells Mona. Marlene then traveled to the hotel to confront her dream/nightmare, only to be undone by what occurred in her room there.
There are several layers to Mona's investigation: There is the obvious question (prompted by one of doctors) of what triggered Marlene's fugue state. (There may be something genetic at work, the doctor had reasoned. Mona demurred, as Mona is Marlene's only living relative.). When Mona reaches the hotel, proprietor "Otto" is willing to assist Mona in her desire to see the room at issue. His spouse, "Lore," is far less willing to aid Mona in her investigation. Mona also discovers from Otto that it is indeed the case that three men had killed themselves on the property, undone, he tells her, by the burdens of having an entire community depend upon their success and efforts. Not everyone can bear such a burden, he reasons.
Mona also asks Otto about a name "Trude" that appeared on one of her mother's many notebook-style drawings. Otto tells Mona he will look into this clue. Subsequently, Mona has lunch with Lore and Otto. Otto tells Mona that the name Trude "rang a bell" and that he remembered that it is a "lullaby." He retrieves an old tape recorder and plays for Mona the contents of the tune. The lullaby sends both Otto and Mona into fugue states that result in a clear danger to Mona and a sudden change in direction for the film. ("Trude," we learn, is not simply a lullaby and Otto is not simply a driven, but friendly, hotel proprietor.)
As the film closes in on the one-hour mark, we discover that at the heart of "Sleep" is the issue of historical memory. The hotel, like the town in which it is located, is in the process of rebuilding. And part of that rebuilding is directly addressing how the past is to be remembered. Otto has ambitions of a political nature. He is part of a far-right party that will have as its base the hotel. In a dinner speech to his fellow travelers ("the finest men of the valley," he calls them), he tells his male companions that "they" should not to be "ashamed . . . Of our origins, our traditions . . . Our history." It is time for a "new . . . Movement." He states that "naked envy drives these parasites to our borders" and that they must wear their "armor" when dealing with such miscreants.
This turn to politics may seem both sudden and strange in a movie that, at least for most of its running time, was singularly uninterested in such matters. But this is simply to bring to the surface the unexposed "point" of the film: that the ghosts (and delirium) of the past are alive and well in the house; only in "Sleep" it is the women, across generations, who have to confront and then pick up the pieces of this past: Marlene, who travels to a place (the hotel) that feels like a home she knows but never really knew; Mona, who retraces her mothers steps with the intention of helping her mother; Lore, who guards the hotel while Otto entertains the guests; Friza, the hotel aide who (rather cleverly) fights the "Nazis" (and with Lore's blessing!); and Trude, the erstwhile rescuer, who also appears to be the living descendent of those who were the victims of war crimes.
Other reviewers have likened the narrative style of "Sleep" to the work of David Lynch. Given the underlying concerns in the movie, I am not sure I agree with the analogy, though there are some surrealistic stylistic elements that lend some credence to it. I will agree, however, that "Sleep" is not a tidy movie. That said, "Sleep" also has ambitions that are far greater than the average celluloid ghost story. To that extent, "Sleep" is a far more "serious" offering than, say, the more recent "Cuckoo" (2024).
