Spiritual Voices 2

A veritable tour-de-force undertaken by Sokúrov and his team, this documentary was filmed on the arid frontiers of Tajiskitan with Afghanistan, is five and a half hours long and is divided into five parts. “We would work in places where war and its exercise are part of the routine. We would be, some of the days, tense, in wait of conflict; and other days, in the midst of battles in fact. There was only one certainty: there would always be victims, parents or friends. Always the same anguish and feeling of abandonment”, says the director. “People here in Russia are brought up always to be ready to fight. Our national idols are not men who, by working in peace, wrought anything close to genius or new for humanity. They are all of them war heroes.” Sokúrov regards this film as a “war diary” with a description of the young soldiers, but that also serves to bring to the surface the author’s innermost feelings.

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