Father and Son

Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark was a great success worldwide last year: even in America, the bravura piece in one shot attracted thousands of viewers. His next, Father and Son, is a classic Sokurov, a mythical, lyrical film that should be seen as the second part of the family trilogy that started with Mother and Son (1996). Father and son share an apartment on the top floor of a house, where they live in an intimate world of memories and everyday rituals. Mother died early, son Alexei is only 20 years younger than his father. While they know they will one day have to free themselves from their fraternal symbiosis, this seems impossible for now. Who should comfort Alexei with his recurring nightmares? For the father, his son is inextricably tied up with his beloved wife. The son follows in his father’s military footsteps: he loves sport, tends to irresponsible behaviour and has problems with his girlfriend, who is jealous of his close bond with his father. Sokurov filmed this story partly in St. Petersburg, partly on the roofs of Lisbon: fluent, sometimes almost a dance performance, then reminiscent of ancient sculpture. A dreamy ‘fairytale’ about an omnipotent love between a father and a son, filled with an eroticism that is hard to place.