Alexander Sokurov | |
|---|---|
Александр Сокуров | |
.jpg) Sokurov in 2025 | |
| Born | (1951-06-14)14 June 1951 (age 74) Podorvikha,Irkutsky District, Soviet Union |
| Alma mater | Nizhny Novgorod University Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Title | People's Artist of Russia (2004) |
| Awards | 2025 Laureate of the VADDA CROSS-VADDA RISSI Medal(Traderson Foundation Medal for Contribution to the Preservation of the Indigenous Vadda People)[1] |
Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov,PAR (Russian:Александр Николаевич Сокуров; born 14 June 1951) is a Russian filmmaker.[2] His most significant works include a feature film,Russian Ark (2002), filmed in asingle unedited shot, andFaust (2011), which was honoured with theGolden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at theVenice Film Festival.[3]
Sokurov was born in Podorvikha,[4]Irkutsky District, in Siberia, into a military officer's family. He graduated from the History Department of theNizhny Novgorod University in 1974 and entered one of theVGIK studios the following year. There he became friends withTarkovsky and was deeply influenced by his filmMirror. Most of Sokurov's early features were banned by Soviet authorities. During his early period, he produced numerous documentaries, includingThe Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn and a reportage aboutGrigori Kozintsev's flat in Saint Petersburg. His filmMournful Unconcern was nominated for theGolden Bear at the37th Berlin International Film Festival in 1987.[5]
Mother and Son (1997) was his first internationally acclaimed feature film. It was entered into the20th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Special Silver St. George.[6] It was mirrored byFather and Son (2003), which baffled the critics with its implicithomoeroticism (though Sokurov himself has criticized this particular interpretation).[7]Susan Sontag included two Sokurov features among her ten favorite films of the 1990s, saying: "There’s no director active today whose films I admire as much."[8] In 2006, he received the Master of Cinema Award of theInternational Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg.
Sokurov is aCannes Film Festival regular, with four of his movies having debuted there. However, until 2011, Sokurov didn't win top awards at major international festivals. For a long time, his most commercially and critically successful film was the semi-documentaryRussian Ark (2002), acclaimed primarily for its visually hypnotic images and single unedited shot.
Sokurov has filmed atetralogy exploring the corrupting effects of power. The first three installments were dedicated to prominent 20th-century rulers:Moloch (1999), aboutHitler,Taurus (2001), aboutLenin, andThe Sun (2005) aboutHirohito. In 2011, Sokurov shot the last part of the series,Faust, a retelling ofGoethe's tragedy. The film, depicting instincts and schemes ofFaust in his lust for power, premiered on 8 September 2011 in competition at the68th Venice International Film Festival.[9] The film won theGolden Lion, the highest award of the Venice Festival.[3] Producer Andrey Sigle said aboutFaust: "The film has no particular relevance to contemporary events in the world – it is set in the early 19th century – but reflects Sokurov's enduring attempts to understand man and his inner forces."[10]
The military world of the former USSR is one of Sokurov's ongoing interests, because of his personal connections to the subject and because the military marked the lives of a large part of population of the USSR. Three of his works,Spiritual Voices: From the Diaries of a War, Confession,From the Commander’s Diary andSoldier’s Dream revolve around military life.Confession has been screened at several independent film festivals, while the other two are virtually unknown.[11]
In 1994 Sokurov accompanied Russian troops to a post on the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. The result wasSpiritual Voices: From the Diaries of a War, a 327-minute cinematic meditation on the war and the spirit of the Russian army.Landscape photography is featured in the film, but the music (including works by Mozart, Messiaen and Beethoven) and the sound are also particularly important. Soldiers' jargon and the combination of animal sounds, sighs and other location sounds in the fog and other visual effects give the film a phantasmagorical feel. The film brings together all the elements that characterize Sokurov's films: long takes, elaborate filming and image processing methods, a mix of documentary and fiction, the importance of the landscape and the sense of a filmmaker who brings transcendence to everyday gestures.[11]
On the journey from Russia to the border post, in the film, fear never leaves the faces of the young soldiers. Sokurov captures their physical toil and their mental desolation, as well as daily rituals such as meals, sharing tobacco, writing letters and cleaning duties. There is no start or end to the dialogues; Sokurov negates conventional narrative structure. The final part of the film celebrates the arrival of the New Year, 1995, but the happiness is fleeting. The following day, everything remains the same: the endless waiting at a border post, the fear and the desolation.[11]
InConfession: From the Commander’s Diary, Sokurov films officers from the Russian Navy, showing the monotony and lack of freedom of their everyday lives. The dialogue allows us to follow the reflections of a Ship Commander. Sokurov and his crew went aboard a naval patrol ship headed for Kuvshinka, a naval base in theMurmansk region, in theBarents Sea. Confined within the limited space of a ship anchored in Arctic waters, the team filmed the sailors as they went about their routine activities.[11]
Soldier's Dream is another Sokurov film that deals with military themes. It contains no dialogue. This film actually came out of the material edited for one of the scenes in part three ofSpiritual Voices.Soldier's Dream was screened at the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany in 1995 – whenSpiritual Voices was still at the editing stage – as Sokurov's homage to the art critic and historian Hans Schlegel, in acknowledgement of his contributions in support of Eastern European filmmakers.[11]
He suffers from severe eyesight problems.[12]
In 2010 Sokurov launched his personal course at theKabardino-Balkarian State University inNalchik.[13] In 2015, 12 students graduated from his course; among them were such rising stars of cinema, asKantemir Balagov,[14]Vladimir Bitokov,Kira Kovalenko,[15] andAlexander Zolotukhin.[16][17]
During a December 2016 meeting of the Council for Culture and Arts, Sokurov appealed to PresidentVladimir Putin to reconsider the verdict against filmmakerOleg Sentsov (which Putin refused).[18]
In 2022, Sokurov criticized the Kremlin and opposed theRussian invasion of Ukraine. For this, in June 2022 he was denied the right to leave Russia.[19]
Sokurov's filmFairytale was banned in Russia. No specific reason was given, only subparagraph “zh” of the rules on the issuance of release certificates was cited: “in other cases determined by federal laws.” Sokurov emphasized that censorship is prohibited in Russia and no one has the right to restrict the Russian audience’s access to works of art. “Because the movie has already been shown and is being shown all over the world,” he said.[20][21][22]
| Year | English Title | Original Title | Credited as | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | ||||
| 1987 | Mournful Unconcern | Скорбное бесчувствие | Yes | No | produced in 1983 |
| 1987 | The Lonely Voice of Man | Одинокий голос человека | Yes | Yes | produced in 1979 |
| 1988 | Days of Eclipse | Дни затмения | Yes | No | |
| 1989 | Save and Protect | Spasi i sokhrani | Yes | No | |
| 1990 | The Second Circle | Круг второй | Yes | No | |
| 1992 | The Stone | Yes | No | ||
| 1994 | Whispering Pages | Тихие страницы | Yes | Yes | |
| 1997 | Mother and Son | Мать и сын | Yes | No | |
| 1999 | Moloch | Молох | Yes | No | |
| 2001 | Taurus | Телец | Yes | No | alsocinematographer |
| 2002 | Russian Ark | Русский ковчег | Yes | Yes | |
| 2003 | Father and Son | Отец и сын | Yes | No | |
| 2005 | The Sun | Сóлнце | Yes | No | also cinematographer |
| 2007 | Alexandra | Александра | Yes | Yes | |
| 2011 | Faust | Фауст | Yes | Yes | Golden Lion winner |
| 2022 | Fairytale | Сказка | Yes | Yes | |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Sonata for Viola. Dmitri Shostakovitch | |
| 1986 | Elegy | |
| 1987 | And Nothing More | |
| Evening Sacrifice | ||
| Patience of Labour | ||
| 1988 | Maria (Peasant Elegy) | |
| Moscow Elegy | ||
| 1989 | Sonata for Hitler | |
| Soviet Elegy | ||
| 1990 | Petersburg Elegy | |
| To The Events In Transcaucasia | ||
| A Simple Elegy | ||
| A Retrospection of Leningrad (1957–1990) | ||
| 1991 | An Example of Intonation | |
| 1992 | Elegy from Russia | |
| 1995 | Soldier's Dream | |
| Spiritual Voices | ||
| 1996 | Oriental Elegy | |
| 1997 | Hubert Robert. A Fortunate Life | |
| A Humble Life | ||
| The St. Petersburg Diary: Inauguration of a monument to Dostoevsky | ||
| 1998 | The St. Petersburg Diary: Kosintsev's Flat | |
| Confession | ||
| The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn | ||
| 1999 | dolce… | |
| 2001 | Elegy of a Voyage | |
| 2004 | The St. Petersburg Diary: Mozart. Requiem | |
| 2006 | Elegy of a life: Rostropovich, Vishnevskaya | |
| 2015 | Francofonia | |
| 2025 | Director's Diary | Post-production |
