Aleksandr Sokurov

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

A doctor in early 19th-century Germany becomes infatuated with the sister of a man he unintentionally killed and bargains with the Devil incarnate to conjure their union in exchange for his soul.

A man goes for a walk through the countryside with his dying mother.

Agnès Varda takes us on a journey of discovery as she travels the globe—from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City to Los Angeles—meeting with friends, artists, and fellow filmmakers.

A re-imagination of Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s final days in power as WWII draws to a close.

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

Agnès Varda takes us on a journey of discovery as she travels the globe—from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City to Los Angeles—meeting with friends, artists, and fellow filmmakers.

No synopsis available yet.

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

A doctor in early 19th-century Germany becomes infatuated with the sister of a man he unintentionally killed and bargains with the Devil incarnate to conjure their union in exchange for his soul.

A doctor in early 19th-century Germany becomes infatuated with the sister of a man he unintentionally killed and bargains with the Devil incarnate to conjure their union in exchange for his soul.

A man goes for a walk through the countryside with his dying mother.

A re-imagination of Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s final days in power as WWII draws to a close.

This film was Sokurov's first feature at Lenfilm, roughly based on a short story by the contemporary Soviet writer Grigory Baklanov about the transitional period from power to subordinance.

This film was Sokurov's first feature at Lenfilm, roughly based on a short story by the contemporary Soviet writer Grigory Baklanov about the transitional period from power to subordinance.

In 1942 Bavaria, Eva is alone, when Adolf arrives with Josef, his wife Magda, and Martin to spend a couple of days without politics.

Inspired by Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Sokurov’s Save and Protect recalls the most crucial events of Emma’s decline and fall: affairs with the aristocratic Rodolphe and the student Leon, the humiliation that follows her husband’s botching of the operation on the stable boy’s clubfoot. The universality of the theme of eternal struggle between the soul and the flesh is conveyed through the absence of specific reference to time or place: although the film seems to begin in 1840, its surreal mode effortlessly accommodates an automobile and the strains of “When the Saints Go Marching In” on an off-screen radio. Focusing on passion from a woman’s perspective and downplaying plot, Sokurov explores his subject in exquisite detail, capturing not only the heat of passion but also the quiet moments before and after and the innocent sensuousness of the body.

Unfolding over two days in 1924, the film depicts the dying Lenin, world revolutionary and father of the USSR, now powerless and isolated at his Gorki estate. Cared for by his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaia, sister Maniasha, his German doctor and several attendants, Lenin raves about his diminishing faculties, discusses the deaths of great figures (including Marx), rides a car to a picnic in a meadow and ponders his historic legacy.

A young night watchman at the Anton Chekhov museum in Yalta encounters a mysterious, weary intruder who appears to be the playwright himself, returned from the dead. Over the course of a single night, the two share a series of quiet, existential interactions within the preserved rooms of the estate.

Set in the early 1920s after the end of the Russian Civil War, Red Army soldier Nikita returns to his hometown to see his partner Lyuba, both of whom are scarred by the trauma of the Russian Empire of yesteryear.

Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.

Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.

An anonymous man wanders through decomposing, fog-enshrouded catacombs and encounters a series of “the degraded and the humiliated,” including a holy prostitute and a Kafkaesque bureaucrat.

An anonymous man wanders through decomposing, fog-enshrouded catacombs and encounters a series of “the degraded and the humiliated,” including a holy prostitute and a Kafkaesque bureaucrat.

From 1961 to 1995, Alexander Sokurov kept a personal diary, recording both important events and everyday trivia. Now these candid recordings are taking on a new life in a large-scale five-hour documentary, intertwined with footage from iconic films of that era. This is not just the autobiography of a famous director, but a personal look at the history of the second half of the 20th century, full of reflections and observations.

From 1961 to 1995, Alexander Sokurov kept a personal diary, recording both important events and everyday trivia. Now these candid recordings are taking on a new life in a large-scale five-hour documentary, intertwined with footage from iconic films of that era. This is not just the autobiography of a famous director, but a personal look at the history of the second half of the 20th century, full of reflections and observations.

From 1961 to 1995, Alexander Sokurov kept a personal diary, recording both important events and everyday trivia. Now these candid recordings are taking on a new life in a large-scale five-hour documentary, intertwined with footage from iconic films of that era. This is not just the autobiography of a famous director, but a personal look at the history of the second half of the 20th century, full of reflections and observations.

1998, Nalchik. A Jewish family is in trouble: the youngest son and his bride do not come home, and in the morning, a ransom note arrives. The ransom is so high that the family is forced not only to sell its small business, but also to seek help from its fellow tribesmen.

In this dreamlike film, a nameless father and his son, Aleksei, live together in an apartment in St. Petersburg. Aleksei's mother has died and consequently the two have a very close relationship. When Aleksei acquires a girlfriend, she refuses to take a back seat to his bond with his dad, and breaks up with him. Aleksei is also experiencing nightmares, dreading separation from his father to be a part of the military as his father was.

Elderly Aleksandra visits her Russian soldier grandson, Denis, at the Chechen war front, providing comfort as she tours his army. All the while, Denis ponders the reason for her unexpected appearance.

Elderly Aleksandra visits her Russian soldier grandson, Denis, at the Chechen war front, providing comfort as she tours his army. All the while, Denis ponders the reason for her unexpected appearance.

The second film of Alexander Sokurov's documentary series "Petersburg Diary" is dedicated to the outstanding Soviet film director Grigory Kozintsev

This bleak late soviet-era drama follows the career of Malyanov, a young medical school graduate who has been sent to work in Turkmenia. Here he runs into a hodge-podge of people of differing ethnicities, all of them victims of the government's earlier mania for relocating and eliminating whole ethnic groups and classes of people. These desperately unhappy people are unable to find any pleasure in this diverse companionship, but instead are antagonistic to it, and often resort to desperate measures in their doomed attempts to ease their pain.

Video version of the dramatic dystopian performance staged by Alexander Sokurov in Vicenza, on the stage of the world's oldest theater Teatro Olimpico. The plot is based on a free interpretation of the works of I. A. Brodsky, which tells about two characters doomed to life imprisonment.

Video version of the dramatic dystopian performance staged by Alexander Sokurov in Vicenza, on the stage of the world's oldest theater Teatro Olimpico. The plot is based on a free interpretation of the works of I. A. Brodsky, which tells about two characters doomed to life imprisonment.

The action in this lavishly produced film takes place at an oddly ark-shaped mansion during World War I, and in spirit (although not in story) it reflects the play which inspired it, the ferociously antiwar Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw. A large group of family and friends have gathered at this country house to dance, drink, and converse. Their conversation, in particular, is adorned with erudite literary references and quotations. Despite their apparent refinement, their preoccupations are simple: sex and violence. Disquieting images break the tranquility of the vacationers' inappropriate idyll: some of these include documentary footage of starving African children, images (both real and re-enacted) of George Bernard Shaw going about his daily life, and a corpse coming to life on an autopsy table, only to cheapen that miracle by scolding a group of women. The music used in the film ironically points to its disturbing message and is uniformly anachronistic.

A 1988 documentary film directed by Alexander Sokurov, about the later life and death of Soviet Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film was originally intended to mark the 50th birthday of Tarkovsky in 1982, which would have been before his death. Controversy with Soviet authorities about the film's style and content led to significant delays in the production.

A 1988 documentary film directed by Alexander Sokurov, about the later life and death of Soviet Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film was originally intended to mark the 50th birthday of Tarkovsky in 1982, which would have been before his death. Controversy with Soviet authorities about the film's style and content led to significant delays in the production.

A man tries to come to terms with his father's death and to deal with the mundane details of his burial in a society cut off from spirituality.

Luigi Ghirri's final project, unfortunately unrealized, was a "house of the seasons": to purchase a farmhouse, which appears in the photographer's last works, near his home in Roncocesi, and to stage exhibitions there, each linked to the current season, thus creating a close connection between natural time and artistic time. This interrupted project inspired "Pink Desert," in which the camera 'visits' a series of landscapes photographed by Ghirri according to the changing seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Nocturnal Spring. Aleksandr Sokurov narrates each season depicted in the film, focusing in narrative form on Luigi Ghirri's sense of the cyclical nature of time.

The reburial of great Russian singer Feodor Chaliapin from Les Batignolles cemetery in Paris to Novo–Devitchye cemetery in Moscow. The daughters from Chaliapin’s second marriage travel to the Soviet Union for the ceremony.

Famous actors and ordinary people from all walks of life read stories from a book describing the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II.

No synopsis available yet.

The life and work of Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky is celebrated and explored in three documentary films: Tempo Di Viaggio (1983) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra, Moscow Elegy (1988) directed by Alexander Sokurov, and One Day In The Life Of Andrei Arsenevitch (2000) directed by Chris Marker.

This film project was made in 1996 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the cinema.

A civil and artistic statement about those who determined the fate of the planet: Stalin, Churchill, Mussolini, Hitler, according to a Russian newspaper.

A civil and artistic statement about those who determined the fate of the planet: Stalin, Churchill, Mussolini, Hitler, according to a Russian newspaper.