The Dreams of Aleksandr SOKUROV Film Retrospective coinciding with the Russian Dreams Exhibition

January 5, 2009
The Dreams of Aleksandr SOKUROV Film Retrospective coinciding with the Russian Dreams Exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art 1/8/09 Download the article

08 THU 8:30pm:
“The Dreams of Aleksandr SOKUROV”
Film Retrospective coinciding with the Russian Dreams Exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art
Aleksandra (Александра) (Russia/2007)
With Galina Vishnevskaya, Vasily Shevtsov, Raisa Gichaeva

Starring Russia’s opera legend Galina Vishnevskya in a monumental performance, Sokorov’s Aleksandra is a simple story of a down-to-earth grandmother’s visit to her grandson’s military camp during the war of Chechnaya (but it is barely recognizable as such, so could be a war anywhere). But it is also a story of the ugliness of war, without ever actually depicting battle scenes, and the totality of the war experience and loss of basic humanity, as told through the intimacy of a grandmother and grandson’s relationship. In Russian with English subtitles.Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival

“A film of startling originality and beauty”—Manohla Dargis NY Times

“MASTERFUL! Crisply shot and impeccably framed, with an audio tapestry as densely woven as any
by David Lynch or Gus Van Sant”—Village Voice

“A POWERFUL and PUZZLING EXPERIENCE. . .Sokurov’s films literally don’t belong in the same
conceptual universe as American-European narrative cinema and don’t play by its rules.”