Father and Son 2003, 94 min., 35 mm, colour, Dolby Digital zero film (Germany) Nikola–film Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Producer: Thomas Kufus Igor Kalenov Screenplay: Sergey Potepalov Director of Photography: Alexander Burov Director of Sound: Sergey Moshkov Production Design: Nataliya Kochergina Editor: Sergey Ivanov Starring: Andrey Shchetinin Aleksey Nejmyshev also Featuring: Aleksandr Razbash Fedor Lavrov Marina Zasukhina Composer: Andrey Sigle after themes by Peotr Chaikovsky This film is dedicated out of deep gratitude to Aleksandr Golutva for his constant and amicable support. The story of the family A small family — a father and a son — lives on the top floor of an old house. The father retired from the military, leaving his beloved air regiment. He ended his military career not of his own wishes — circumstances forced him to. A former participant in military actions, now he has been transferred to the reserve as he begins middle age. When he was a student in flight school, he experienced the first and the only love of his life. This girl became his wife and she gave birth to his son. Both of them were twenty years old then. The wife died when she was young. This love remained his secret unique happiness. The son grew up, and he will probably be a military man like his father. The son's features constantly remind the father of his wife. He doesn't separate his son from his still persisting love: this is his unity with his beloved woman. The father cannot imagine his life without his son. The son loves his father devotedly and deeply, a filial feeling intensified by an instinctive moral responsibility that is being tested by life. Their love is almost of mythological virtue and scale. It cannot happen in real life. This is a fairy–tale collision. Alexander Sokurov (athor's preface) Summary Alexander Sokurov's FATHER AND SON is the second film of his planned trilogy dedicated to the drama of human relations. As well as in the first film, MOTHER AND SON, the director recreates the environment of a parable. This parable has neither a beginning nor an end. There are no temporal or topographic landmarks. It is possible to lose one's way in the time period and landscapes, are vary in the film. This is what happens to the Son in a dream sequence, looking no bigger than a finger in a familiar, but still strange forest. A soldier's uniform is seen in the latest style, while women's dresses and hairstyles are of the 40s, 50s and 60s. Roofs and narrow streets of an old northern town can be seen under a bright southern sun. The film takes place against this collective landscape. The film flows nearly unnoticeably through interiors where the mode of life is conventional, but hardly typical: a table, a bed, flowers. The only signs are symbols of a human dwelling. The faces of the film's characters are striking and very contemporary. Non–professional performers play the main roles. The son who grew up without a mother found everything in his father's love — cradle, home, school and harbor. Now young manhood calls him to the open sea of life. Torn between interest in his father's past and unhappy love (his girlfriend left him for another man) are left unresolved. The son's worries are felt by the still youthful father, breaking their world into two. This world was once indivisible for them. From now on, father and son will have their individual lives to come together again sometime in the future. Alexander Sokurov plans to shoot TWO BROTHERS AND A SISTER to finish his family trilogy. Alexandra Tuchinskaya Prizes and awards: 2003. Prize Fipresci of IFF in Cannes.