Empire

The short film Empire is based on the radio drama Sorry, Wrong Number by the American writer Lucille Fletcher. Sokurov draws on a single theme, forming the background for the story of the thriller – the woman’s illness. The heroine is bed-ridden and her only means of communication with the outside world is her telephone – until a killer interrupts the conversation… Sokurov removed all the dialogues, leaving us alone with the heroine (‘a living skeleton’) who is listening to a radio broadcasting of Traviata, with its pleas for mercy and love. Empire is made in a style that attempted to reanimate the dead ancient harmony. The film was shot as a study work of VGIK student S. Sidorov. At that time Sokurov did not have a chance to launch a project of his own, therefore he used this possibility to work. Visual conception of this film anticipates a considerable number of Sokurov’s future experiments: light that models the space, leveling of colours, correlation of contrasting textures. (Alexandra Tuchinskaya)