1978–1987, 87 min., colour
Lenfilm, icw the Film Makers' Union

scenario: Yu.Arabov
camera: S.Yurizditsky
sound: I.Zhuravleva (1978), V.Persov (1987)
production design: V. Lebedev, L. Lochmele
consultants: L.Zvonnikova; M.Platonova
editor: A.Bespalova, (1978), L.Semenova (1987)

cast: T.Goryacheva, A.Gradov.

“Film The Lonely Voice of Man is the first full-length feature film of Alexander Sokurov, made in 1978 and remastered in 1987 at the studio Lenfilm with the assistance of the Union of Filmmakers.

The story is based on the themes of Andrey Platonov's works River Potudan' and The Origin of a Master. The story of the painful rebirth of young Nikita who bears in his heart all the pain of the civil war, his truly human love for Lyuba, the difficult path of two young, deeply moral and very lonely people to each other… Far from being a screen version in traditional sense of the word, the film restores the spiritual nature of Platonov's prose”.

Tatiana Smorodinskaya (from the annotation of film editor)

Only the years of Perestroika and festival awards of The Lonely Voice of Man have restored the official status of this work, which had been banned in the USSR for a long time. Nowadays the film has become classics of cinema, whereas in 1978, when the film and its author were legends of young Soviet cinema, Sokurov was not allowed to present it as his graduating work in VGIK (State All-Union Institute for Cinematography). This full-length film, putting forward innovative artistic decisions, had an extremely low budget (the money should have been spent on a student's three-part movie). Nobody could have anticipated that it would be a nine-part film — not even Sokurov's partners, scriptwriter Yury Arabov and cameraman Sergey Yurizdistky (their alliance was born during their work on this film). Sokurov managed to find cinema equivalent for Andrey Platonov's work — the writer had a similar worldview.

Rare spirituality of absolutely unknown actors (by all means non-professional) and depressing landscapes of poor Russian province made the film surprising in its unusual trustworthiness (almost like that of a document) and, at the same time, in its power of creative generalization. It was then that the young director approached the main theme of his future work — the tragic gap between the flesh and the spirit, and in this connection he sensed that he was a successor of Russian literary tradition. In Platonov's work he saw “the story of “a weak heart”, for whom happiness turned out “hard work” — reads his diary of that period. The filmmaker displays the mechanism of violence against Nature and Man through the chronicle of dismal events, draining both the soul and the body. And Love and continuation of life are cherished but unattainable dreams of his characters…

The Lonely Voice of Man is dedicated to Andrey Tarkovsky who morally supported Sokurov in the period of struggle for the film.

Alexandra Tuchinskaya

Prizes and awards:

Leningrad Cinema-clubs' Award at the Young Cinema of Leningrad festival.
Grand-prix of the jury The Bronze Leopard at the 40th International Cinema Festival in Locarno, Switzerland.

English translation by Anna Shoulgat, © 2002.