Leslie Barany

The untold origin story behind Ridley Scott's Alien - rooted in Greek and Egyptian mythologies, underground comics, the art of Francis Bacon, and the dark visions of Dan O'Bannon and H.R. Giger. A contemplation on the symbiotic collaborative process of movie-making, the power of myth, and our collective unconscious.

A pianist plays in a huge theatre on a cylindrical piano, which is rotated by his dwarf assistant. The theatre is part of a huge, spherical city. Upon waking, he turns out to be a street musician, who has a restraining order, but wants to teach his daughter how to play the piano.

An account of the life and work of Swiss painter, sculptor, architect and designer H. R. Giger (1940-2014), tormented father of creatures as fearsome as they are fascinating, inhabitants of nightmarish biomechanical worlds.

Based on his childhood fascination for the strange atmosphere of amusement parks Till Nowak created the fictional documentary 'The Centrifuge Brain Project'. He collected footage and used digital animation to create a series of non-existing thrill rides. Dr. Laslowicz is convinced: Making his machines more powerful brings him comes closer to the solution for all our problems. An obvious mistake or just typical human?

The film offers a unique insight into the world of Giger's creation and his private life. In addition to the interview with the artist himself, a considerable part of the documentary is formed by interviews with personalities such as Ernst Fuchs, Stanislav Grof and Debbie Harry. Though the authors do not avoid particular developmental periods of Giger's work, the main purpose was not to create the artist's biography. In this case, it is more likely considered to be an authentic perspective on the peculiar world of this Swiss surrealist artist.

"H.R. Giger's Sanctuary" explores the treasures of the H.R. Giger Museum & Giger Bar at the Chateau St. Germain in beautiful Gruyeres, Switzerland. The documentary features an interview and a museum tour with the master of the airbrush, the inventor of "biomechanics", and the creator of the Academy Award winning "Alien". The artist talks openly about his fascination with the morbid, his fame and cult following, his fears and nightmares, and about his visions of the future.