In Absentia

Story

Synopsis

A woman sits alone on a chair at a table in a room on one of the top floors of an asylum. Bright spot lights dot the night, sometimes shining on her window. She sharpens pencils and writes on a page in a copy book. The pencil point often breaks under her fingers' force. She places broken points outside the window on the sill. A satanic figure is somewhere nearby, animated but of straw or clay, not flesh. She finishes her writing, tears the paper from the pad, folds it, places it in an envelope, and slips it through a slot. Is she writing to her husband? "Sweetheart, come."

Directors

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Language

English

Country

United Kingdom

Release date

21 October 2000

Ensemble

Cast

• 

  Marlene Kaminsky

  Woman

• Kathinka Pasveer

  Female voice

• 

  Karlheinz Stockhausen

  Male voice