At a first glance,the cinematic language of Sokurov might seem miles away,or more precisely the exact opposite of that required in a documentary.But,Sokurov is reinventing,is reconstructing the documentary movie language making him highly metaphoric,amazingly poetic,and hypnotic. I learned that it's hard to find a good translation for "Povinnost"-it's forced labor,something made not as a result of free will.Confession,the translation,it might be fit but doesn't really touch the very deep essence of the movie. This is a "road movie" in the largest meaning one might find:it's a journey,an inner journey beyond time and space into men's soul.It's about solitude,constraint,force,life and its meaning.Sokurov's language has its usual richness,its very slow pace,its metaphorical meanings;its a meta-cinema,an alternative cinema,not in an experimental way but more in a kind of melting together cinema,music,literature,painting,philosophy. Sokurov is extremely mystic;this appears not in its relation with G-D but more in the hope that might come after a long waiting. This movie reminds that cinema is first of all art and not box-office;this banal statement receives here a concrete expression,this movie being a kind of cinematic book more then a movie.I warmly recommend the movie,for enlightened audience.
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