Aleksandr Sokurov

Five years in the making, based on six lengthy interviews filmed on six different locations in Saint Petersburg, we meet an outspoken artist who covers here his entire life and prolific career. The locations were Sokurov’s own favourites, where he felt at home.

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

Yekaterinburg, Russia, July 17th, 1917. Czar Nicholas II Romanov and his entire family are brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks. This tragic event puts an end to the long dynasty that had ruled the country with an iron hand since the coronation of Michael I Romanov in 1613.

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.

The second film by Sokurov featuring Boris Yeltsin as the principal character. Now he is the President of Russia, invested with power, bearing the full responsibility for the destinies of his distant compatriots as well as his closest kin and friends.

In "The Soviet Elegy" the long train of photos of the Soviet leaders, dead or alive, stops at the portrait of Yeltsin. At the time of shooting Yeltsin had fallen down from the assembly of the Communist Party deities, and participated in the earthly life through connections of different kinds.

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.

Agnès Varda travels around the world to meet friends, artists and filmmakers for an expansive view of the global contemporary art scene.

A portrait of Naum Kleiman — film scholar, historian, and sage. In conversation with him, a vast cultural landscape unfolds, where Pushkin meets Godard, Sokurov, Dionysius, Eisenstein, Snyders, Glass, Ozu, and many others. Kleiman reveals the simplicity of mystery, and in doing so, reveals himself.

This intimately narrated journey from Russia to Rotterdam, via rail, road and Finnish ferry, is a melancholy meditation on divinity, time and place in art, purpose (or its lack) and the loneliness of the soul. Passing through misty snowscapes, half-glimpsed cities and the icy night sea-swell.

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.

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

Proskurina's personal homage to her friends and mentor Alexandr Sokurov. The intimate yet objective portrait comprises frank conversations with the master and footage of the shooting of Russian Ark,

Explores some of the most innovative attempts by contemporary artists, filmmakers, architects etc to explore multiple Temporalities and to counter the uniform sense of time promoted by our technology-driven society.

The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn is a two-part Russian television documentary by Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The documentary shot in Solzhenitsyn’s home shows his everyday life and covers his reflections on Russian history and literature.

A documentary grotesque in which even the walls speak. Famous directors of St. Petersburg cinema recall their lives and work, and images of old films come to life to remind the viewer of themselves.

A documentary about the making of Alexander Sokurov’s film "The Sun".

Making of Russian Ark, with on camera personal views by members of the cast and crew of the major film.

1945, an attack aviation regiment is based at the field airfield, which is served by a team of young girls. The last days of the war are coming... In one of the battles, Lieutenant Volynin’s attack aircraft, damaged by a shell fragment, landed in territory occupied by the Germans. Air gunner Shchepov carried the wounded commander out of the burning plane. With the help of the Polish teacher Anna, they managed to get to theirs. And everyday life at the front began again. A few days before the Victory, Dima Shchepov died. Volynin took the death of his friend seriously. But it was even harder for him to learn about the death of Anna, whom he loved and whom he promised to find after the war...

A documentary film about the Russian director Sergei Kosintsev.

The story of VGIK teachers and students about the acting profession.

The film is dedicated to the life and work of the Russian director, who deservedly received worldwide recognition due to his incredible talent

A montage of Leningrad newsreel becomes a composite collage made up of documents-shots, divided in 16 parts, presenting the author's point of view on Russia and modern times. In the title, Sokurov appears as 'compiler' and the selection of the documents is just like an artistic process.

The picture is about the anti-Hitler coalition of the USSR, England and America, which developed as a counterweight to the aggressive policy of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The unique newsreel footage of these years, shot by operators of different warring countries, is connected with today's thoughts of the author about the fate of the post-war world, about the humanitarian losses of both sides and about gaining unstable hopes for the unity of the world in countering evil.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The second film by Sokurov featuring Boris Yeltsin as the principal character. Now he is the President of Russia, invested with power, bearing the full responsibility for the destinies of his distant compatriots as well as his closest kin and friends.

The second film by Sokurov featuring Boris Yeltsin as the principal character. Now he is the President of Russia, invested with power, bearing the full responsibility for the destinies of his distant compatriots as well as his closest kin and friends.

In "The Soviet Elegy" the long train of photos of the Soviet leaders, dead or alive, stops at the portrait of Yeltsin. At the time of shooting Yeltsin had fallen down from the assembly of the Communist Party deities, and participated in the earthly life through connections of different kinds.

In "The Soviet Elegy" the long train of photos of the Soviet leaders, dead or alive, stops at the portrait of Yeltsin. At the time of shooting Yeltsin had fallen down from the assembly of the Communist Party deities, and participated in the earthly life through connections of different kinds.

Interesting short documentary on young athletes in a Soviet ice skating program, some of whom are barely past toddler age. Kinetic and up close, the doc focuses on movement with music, eschewing interview and conversation, and mostly submerging political and social commentary.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.