Dr. Sander's Sleep Cure

I just saw Dr. Sanders Sleep Cure today at the 25th Annual Nevermore Film Festival in Durham, NC.

From the outset, the film was compelling with beautifully shot scenes, original quirky artifacts, and brilliantly acted roles. The director, Martin Sander, appears in the film forty-eight times in distinct roles. I loved the stylistic uniqueness that Martin brings to the film.

It's a charmingly soothing film with hints of Stanley Kubrick, from my perspective, and is complemented with well-timed bits of humor and subtle horror.

I can't recommend this film enough, especially if you are longing for art that harkens back to the era of cinema escapism in all its lovely aura.

Dr. Sander's Sleep Cure is one of the most original and visually captivating films I've seen in a while. It plays like a dream-sometimes comforting, sometimes bizarre, and always unpredictable. Mart Sander's performance is absolutely remarkable; playing 48 different characters isn't just a gimmick, it's an artistic achievement that keeps the film dynamic and engaging from start to finish.

The style feels like a blend of surreal comedy, experimental horror, and psychological drama. It's not your typical narrative-driven film-it's more of a hypnotic experience that pulls you deeper with each scene. The visuals are dreamlike, the tone shifts constantly, and the line between reality and imagination blurs in the most intriguing way.

This film isn't for everyone, but if you enjoy abstract storytelling and artistic risks, you'll be captivated. It left me thinking long after it ended.

A man (one of the many roles of the director and writer Mart Sander himself) can't find sleep and then puts on a weird cassette tape that is supposed to make the listener drowsy.

First the dreams are slower, then they speed up. The man sees himself in his dreams - first there is one of him, then two, then a lot more!

To be honest, I actually felt sleepy when listening to the hypnotic, purring voice (once more, Sander himself). Especially. Since I watched the film very late at night. So I identified myself with the poor man, because every time another nightmare began, I jolted awake and the sleep was gone.

Mart Sander seems to be one of the-if not the-most prolific filmmakers to emerge from Estonia, and his films are certainly different, but worth watching.

Listening to dialogue that seems to be written for English speakers and then getting mostly-Estonian speakers to translate that to the screen is not without its challenges, and it often detracts from the final product, but if you can get past that mental hurdle and focus on the aesthetics and the complexities of the story, it becomes easier to fall into the dream-like world Sander has established in films like this.

Many scenes remind me of a Greenaway film but with more entertainment value. Like Greenaway, Sander seems to pull classic artworks off the canvas into cinema (albeit less directly), but I think he does it in a more entertaining way. (If you know Greenaway's work you know it can be challenging to sit through at times, usually due to an almost condescending disregard for the audience's patience.) Sander seems a bit more concerned with exposition than Geenaway-and though the sweet spot often eludes him, his work here is a bit more fun to watch.

The mood and gloom of this film also feels a bit Poe-ish, which adds to the entertainment value as well-at least for those who like Poe, art, and magical realism.

Thankfully, Tubi seems to have picked up quite a a few of Sander's films. Check them out!

We found this film lacking in horror, but what it missed in scares, it made up for with an engaging plot and impressive visuals. The music was also a highlight-keep an ear out for the unexpected song at the end! We chose to watch this film after learning that the director himself holds a Guinness World Record for playing nearly 50 different roles. At some point, we lost count, but the experience was entertaining, and some of the stories stayed with us long after the credits rolled. Overall, I think it's worth 8 out of 10, if not for anything else, then for being quite different from other horror flicks that were watched this week.