Petersburg Elegy

Fourth film of the Elegy sequence. Conceived, according to Sokúrov “as an analysis of the past and of modern Russia, its culture and history”, this Petersburg Elegy consists of two parts interconnected: the errant trajectory of the Shaliapin family and the lives of the residents of contemporary St. Petersburg. The focus of the film is on a former Hollywood actor, Fiodor Shaliapin who returns on a visit to his native city sixty years after he left the country, as a child, with his family. Shaliapin is the son of legendary Russian classical singer Fiodor Shaliapin (1873-1938) who immigrated with his family to the east in the twenties. His father was the protagonist in Elegy (1986). According to the Russian film critic Alexandra Tuchinskaya, Sokúrov sees the private lives and family problems of an artist in connection with the society he came from. “The personality of the artist anticipates the future of his people which determines his ‘genetic code’. Care with the human nature of the family, of the nation, and of a man such as Shaliapin must be the essential objective of civilization.”

Was born in 1951 in the city of Podorvikha, Russia. His work, even as a student, was unacceptable to Russian bureaucracy, and he was accused of formalism and of assuming "anti-Soviet views". His first feature, The Lonely Human Voice (1978, 26th Mostra) was refused as a graduating project by the VGIK, the Russian Cinema Institute. Sokurov`s films were shown in Brazil since 1997, at the 21st Mostra, with Mother and Son. He had a retrospective of 33 of his films at 26th Mostra, when was also released the first book in Portuguese about his work, Aleksandr Sokúrov, by publishing house Cosac Naify. Among his most important films are Dolce (1999, 24th Mostra), Elegy of a Voyage (2001, 25th Mostra), The Russian Arc (2002, 26th Mostra), Father and Son (2003, 27th Mostra) Alexandra (2007, 32nd Mostra), in addition to the films that complete the Power Tetralogy: Moloch (1999, 23rd Mostra) about Hitler; Taurus, about Lenin (2001, 26th Mostra), and The Sun, about the Japanese emperor Hirohito (2005, 30th Mostra).

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA