Aleksandr Sokurov He was born in 1951, in a small Siberian village near Lake Baykal. He grew up in Poland and Turkmenistan, as the son of a professional soldier. In 1968, he began studying history at the University of Gorki, while at the same time working as an assistant director in local television. After graduating, he went on to study film directing at the Moscow Film School VGIK. Cutting short his studies there, he found a job at Leninfilm. Between 1980 and 1987, he made two features, several short films and six documentaries. None of these passed State censorship. The exiled Andrei Tarkowski began speaking out for the cause of Sokurov, who was almost completely banned from working professionally; meanwhile, a fund was set up to help the director. Only from 1987 onwards were his films allowed to be shown, in part due to the political changes and also thanks to the efforts of the Filmmakers' Union of the USSR. Sokurov is recognised as one of the most important contemporary Russian directors, and his films have been awarded numerous prizes. SELECTIVE FILMOGRAPHY (English titles) 1986 Moscovite Elegy (documentary) 1988 Days of the Eclipse 1989 Save and Protect Soviet Elegy (documentary) 1990 The Second Circle Ordinary Elegy (documentary) 1993 Elegy from Russia (documentary) The Stone 1997 Mother and Son Spasi I sohrani SAVE AND PROTECT Described as Sokurov's interpretation of Flaubert's novel, paradoxically, this film proves to be quite bewildering. Its reference to a well-known work of literature makes one keep on searching for a logical narrative and a textual credibility which Sokurov tries very hard to disrupt, putting to the test the wishes of the spectator's logic with twists of plausibility and deliberate anachronisms. "My films are not a form of 'art for the people', they are not intended for the masses. We have an audience of our own. I would even call it a 'non-film' audience, because our audiences are more oriented to culture in general than to any particular, concrete form of it - film culture, for example. That's why we address ourselves to a certain kind of public with a certain cultural background; for the most part, an urban one." Direction: Aleksandr Sokurov. / Screenplay: Yuri Arabov. / Cinematography: Sergei Yourizditski. / Editing: Leda Semenova. / Sound: Vladimir Persov. / Music: Yuri Khanine. / Sets: Elena Amchinskaja. / Cast: S. Zervoudaki, R. Vaab, A. Tcherednik, V. Rogovoï. / Production: Lenfilm for VPTO. / World Sales: Lenfilm,10 Kirovsky Ave, St. Petersburg 197101, Russia, tel.: 812 238 5276, fax: 812 233 2174. 35mm / Colour 135' Dni satmenija DAYS OF THE ECLIPSE Dimitri Malianov, a young Russian doctor, goes to a small village in Turkmenistan to work, and finds himself surrounded by a very strange world. In this film, Sokurov has transformed the science fiction of the screenplay by the Strougatski brothers into a visionary, almost hallucinatory approach to central Asia, where madness and death prowl about in the blinding light of the desert. «A director is like a cook in a restaurant», explains Sokurov, «who doesn't know the stomachs of his guests: what he makes is sort of an ideal recipe. The viewer comes into the theater and begins to eat time. Some of it he digests, some of it he does not digest. That can make him sick or irritated. Painting knows no such phenomenon, nor does literature. We could call it the curse of film, the non-artistic component. Painting is therapy, film is still a kind of surgery." Direction: Aleksandr Sokurov. / Screenplay: Yuri Arabov, Arkady Strougatsky, Boris Strougatsky, Piotr Kadotchnikov. / Cinematography: Sergei Yourizditski. / Editing: Leda Semenova. / Sound: Vladimir Persov. / Music: Yuri Khanine. / Cast: Alexei Ananichov, Iskender Oumarov, Vladimir Zamansky, Irina Sokolova. / Production: Lenfilm Studios. / World Sales: Lenfilm Studios, 10 Kirovsky Ave., St. Petersburg 197101, Russia, tel.: 812 238 5276, fax: 812 233 2174. 35mm / Colour 135' Elegija iz Rossii ELEGY FROM RUSSIA A body in the throes of death, or rather hands; a voice emitted from an agonized throat. Portraits of elderly men and women, nearing their last hour, in interiors that seem to send us back to towns along the Volga at the turn of the century; to the Russia of Maxim Gorky, the Russia we have not been able to lose... The fact that seven of Sokurov's documentaries are entitled Elegies, is qualified by his elucidation that «these films are based on documents but they are not documentaries". The term elegy, suggesting as it does a moving or nostalgic lyricism, effectively places these films at the side of poetry and music."In the Elegies", Sokurov explains, "my romantic idea that film is another form of the probably shines through". Direction: Aleksandr Sokurov. / Cinematography: Aleksandr Bourov. / Editing: Leda Semenova. / Sound: Vladimir Persov. / Production: Lenfilm. / World Sales: Lenfilm Studios, 10 Kirovsky Ave., St. Petersburg 197101, Russia, tel.: 812 238 5276, fax: 812 233 2174. 35mm / Colour 68' Krug vtoroj SECOND CIRCLE This is the story of a young man's confrontation with the sudden death of his father, as he undertakes the painful duty of arranging the burial. In Sokurov's hands, this primevally simple theme is rendered as a stunning exploration of emotions, astutely and sensitively observed. Life is shown as invisibly divided into two spheres - the past, represented by the death of the father, and the future, tied into the son's obligation to continue on alone. A film of pure visual poetry, that combines austere ascetism, reminiscent of Goya, with a critical naturalism typical of the great Russian writers ofthe 19th century, such as Maxim Gorky. Choosing a minimalist approach, Sokurov has created an undiluted portrait of pathos and loss; a truly unforgettable masterpiece. Direction: Aleksandr Sokurov. / Screenplay: Yuri Arabov. / Cinematography: Aleksandr Burov. / Editing: Raissa Lissova. / Sound: Vladimir Persov. / Music: Olivier Nussio. / Cast: Piotr Alexandrov, N. Rodnova. / Production: Lenfilm. / World Sales: Lenfilm Studios, 10 Kirovsky Ave., St. Petersburg 197101, Russia, tel.: 812 238 5276, fax: 812 233 2174. 35mm / Colour 92' Mat' i syn MOTHER AND SON This is a story about the deep affection which exists between a mother and her son. While she is seriously ill, he nurses her lovingly. He feeds her, sits her out on a bench in front of the house and reads postcards to her. The mother tries to hide from her son her approaching death. The landscape in which they live has a sad beauty to I, which Sokurov uses like a German Romantic would, his images being reminiscent of paintings by Caspar Friedrich. Long shots of com fields, flattened by the wind; hills crowned with puffy clouds; darkened rooms, through which long streaks of light suddenly shine. Right up until the end, the mother and son remain alone in the setting. Only twice does the exterior world appear on the horizon, in the form of a locomotive smokr trail - which only the son sees, gazing at it longingly. When the mother dies, the son is left entirely alone, in a world that can offer him no comfort. Direction: Aleksandr Sokurov. / Screenplay: Yuri Arabov. / Cinematography: Aleksei Fiodorov. / Editing: Leda Semionova. / Sound: Martin Steyer, Vladimir Persov. / Sets: Vera Zelinskaya, Esther Ritterbusch. / Cast: Gudrun Geyer, Aleksei Ananischnov. / Producer: Thomas Kufus. / Production: Zero Film, Lehrter Str. 57, D-10557 Berlin, Deutschland, tel.: 49 30 394 6036, fax: 49 30 394 5834. / World Sales: Celluloid Dreams, 24 rue Lamartine, 75009 Paris, France, tel.: 33 1 4970 0370, fax: 33 1 4970 0371. 35mm / Colour 82'