Father and son

Russia/Germany, 2003

ZERO FILM (Germany), NIKOLA-FILM with the support of the Russian Ministry of culture

94 minutes

Drama/Parable

«Father and Son» is the second part of a parable trilogy on the theme of natural human bonds («Mother and Son» is the first part).

The son, who grew up without a mother, has been embraced by his father’s love since childhood, but as youth is sets in he feels himself called to the open sea of life. The father, still young, senses pain in his son’s worries because their common, and seemingly solid, world is breaking in two. From this point on, father and son have to experience living separate lives until they find each other again, in the future.

«… Just like in the first film, «Mother and Son», the director reconstructs the material medium of a parable having no beginning and no end, without temporal or topographic landmarks.»

More exactly, guided by those landmarks, which are randomly scattered over the film, one might get lost in the era, in the mid-European landscape, like Tom Thumb in a familiar yet strange forest. We can see a soldier’s uniform of the latest design and women’s dresses and hair-styles of the 40’s,50’s, and 60’s; the roofs and narrow streets of an old northern town under the blazing sun of the south. This collective landscape is in fact the setting, which almost imperceptibly will change over to its interiors, where the lifestyle is not so much typical as usual: a table, a bed, pot flowers – they are not features but symbols of a human dwelling.»

Alexander Sokurov’s official web site

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The director plans to film «Two Brothers and Sister», as a conclusion of this family trilogy.

The leading parts are performed by Andrey Schetinin and Alexey Neimyshev.

Prizes and Awards

2003

FIPRESSI Prize at the International Film Festival in Cannes.

A participant as a contestant in the programme of the International Film Festival in Cannes.

CREW

• Alexander Sokurov (Film director)
• Sergei Potepalov (Script)
• Alexander Burov (Director of photography)
• Andrey Sigle (Composer (musical fantasia on the theme of P. Tchaikovsky))
• Natalya Kocherghina (Art Director)
• Igor Kalenov (Producer)

CAST