Schabenbeck, Stefan
Entry updated 27 October 2025. Tagged: Film, People.
(1940- ) Polish director, writer and animator; graduating from the Łódź Film School's Department of Cinematography, he fell into animation by accident when a teacher mentioned a studio was short by one film and he sent in a script – for what became Everything Is a Number below – and it was accepted. He made only six animated shorts before emigrating and taking up teaching, though he wrote the scenario for a seventh, Slide (1971; original title Ślizgawka) directed by Henryk Ryszka, in which a skater falls through a hole in the ice.
In Everything Is a Number (1966; original title Wszystko jest liczbą) from Studio Malych Form Filmowych (seven minutes, black and white) two clouds collide to form a ball that falls to the ground and from which a man hatches. He wanders and interacts with a landscape of numbers and geometric shapes (see Mathematics), which tend to threaten or confine him. When it rains numbers, he casually creates 10/3, with the resulting 3.3333 recurring pursuing him. Later he wanders on to an unfolded box that closes around him, its mirrored sides reproducing the man until he is legion; leaving the box, these Doppelgangers become instances of the digit 1, as does the original (see Identity). Next came ! (1967; vt Wykrzyknik) co-directed and co-written with Henryk Ryszka; this reportedly involves an exclamation point and – inferred from other sources – a plot echoing the myth of Sisyphus (see Mythology). In Stairs (1968; original title Schody) from Studio Malych Form Filmowych (seven minutes, black and white), a man again wanders a landscape, this time of steps and stairs; exhausted, he eventually collapses lengthwise at the top of an unfinished flight of stairs, to transform into the next step. Drought (1969;, vt Susza), co-directed and possibly co-written with Henryk Ryszka, not seen, involves men building a wooden bridge across a chasm; other sources seem to imply the attempt is futile. In Wind (1969; original title Wiatr) co-directed with Janusz Wiktorowski and co-written with Gabriela Ukielska for Studio Malych Form Filmowych, a crowd in a City watches a letter fall from the sky – clouds are speeding overhead – to land on the roof of a tall building. They rush to the top, only for a gust to blow it to the ground, where it is picked up by a man: the crowd chase him. Shaking them off, he opens the envelope only for the letter to be blown from his hands: with him in pursuit, it flies down a road out of the city, which crosses what appears to be a blasted landscape (Disaster and/or Climate Change might be implied; also, for the animation as a whole, failed Communication).
Schabenbeck's final film was Invasion (1970; original title Inwazja) from Studio Miniatur Filmowych (eight minutes, colour). A group of Robots, of varied designs and functions – including the ability to join and form new machines – land on a planet and explore. Identifying a suitable site, one bores into the ground, the resulting shaft linking with an Underground complex of tunnels. The robots descend and investigate, coming across one of the tunnels' inhabitants, a worm-like blob that disables one of the machines; more blobs attack, but are forced to flee by the robots' Weapons, then are hunted down. The robots drill to extend a tunnel but hit a barrier: one eventually manages to pierce it – our viewpoint then shifts and we see they have broached the lens of a human eye. It appears the robots' journey has been through a body and their planet was an eyeball (see Conceptual Breakthrough). The robots have a psychedelic clockwork appearance.
Everything Is a Number and Stairs are both good; thanks to their brevity the downbeat tone does not drag, while the former does have some Humour; Wind is weaker. Given the despairing mood of his previous works, Invasion is a welcome change of approach and includes some nice visuals, though its message is unclear – dehumanization by Technology, a metaphor for Imperialism, or simply whimsy? It is a nicely surreal work (see Absurdist SF). Though of their time, Invasion, Everything Is a Number and Stairs can be considered minor classics of animation. [SP]
Stefan Schabenbeck
born Zakopane, Poland: 11 October 1940
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