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One year after the visual spectacle of 'Russian Ark', the film ‘in one single breath’, Alexander Sokurov paints us a new picture in FATHER AND SON. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. It was conceived before RUSSIAN ARK, and is part of a trilogy of which MOTHER AND SON (1996) was the first part. Again, FATHER AND SON is devoted to an intense filial relationship. |
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The film opens with the intertwined bodies of two handsome young men, dissolving into each other to the point of being indistinguishable. These are the bodies of a father and a son.
The son has had a nightmare and the father tries to comfort him. They have lived together for years, after the death of the mother, on a rooftop apartment where they have created their own private world, full of memories and daily rituals.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Alexei attends military school. He likes sports, tends to be
irresponsible and has problems with his girlfriend. She is jealous of Alexei’s close relationship
with his father. Alexei’s father knows he should maybe accept a better job in another city,
maybe search for a new wife. But who will ease the pain of Alexei’s nightmares?
Shot in St. Petersburg and Lisbon, Sokurov’s direction relies on the energy from the beauty of
the bodies, the locations and the light to absorb and refract this extreme relationship.
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