Sokurov understands the tension between love and rivalry that is at the core of the son-father relationship. It speaks of what Nicole Oxenhandler calls the eros of parenthood but now at the level of the male's late adolescence. (I have not seen a man's face explored as intimately on screen since Olivier Martinez was filmed in THE CHAMBERMAID ON THE TITANIC.) Every man who has had a father must see this film.
The text is spare the cinematography is heartbreakingly beautiful. All are illuminated by the director, Alexander Sokurov. This is an extraordinary film that explores an area still barely touched by artists and other, academic psychologists: the father-son bond, its complexity, ambivalence, pathos, and depth.
